CUCKOO. 379 



himalayanus*. This species differs in no respect from the Common 

 Cuckoo, except in size. Our Cuckoo varies in length of wing from 

 9 to 8 inches, whilst the eastern form varies from 7f to 6| inches. So 

 far as is known, large examples of the eastern form can only be distin- 

 guished from small examples of the western form by their note, which 

 is not a double one, but a single guttural and hollow- sounding note 

 resembling that of the Hoopoe. 



The Cuckoo is a regular summer migrant to Europe, arriving in Spain 

 and Asia Minor late in March or early in April, but in England seldom 

 before the middle of the latter month, and on the Arctic circle not until 

 the first week of June. Its stay in our islands is comparatively short, the 

 old birds usually leaving in August and the young in September. This 

 order of departure is very exceptional (for in most migratory birds the 

 young are the first to leave), and is probably affected by the Cuckoo's 

 peculiar manner of reproduction. This bird has no young to rear or tend 

 after leaving the nest; consequently, after its eggs are safely deposited, 

 it can return southwards as soon as its supply of food begins to fail. The 

 male birds are the first to arrive in spring, and in a few days they are 

 followed by the females. 



The Cuckoo is one of the most widely distributed of British birds. 



* The synonymy of this species is as follows : 



HIMALAYAN CUCKOO. 



Cuculus striatus, Drapiez, Diet. Class. Sci. iii. p. 144 (1838). 



Cuculus canoroides, S. Mutt. Verh. Land- en Volkenk. p. 235 (circ. 1840). 



Cuculus saturatus, Hodgs. Journ. As. Soc. Seng. 1843, p. 942. 



Cuculus optatus, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1845, p. 18. 



Cuculus himalayanus, Vigors, apud Blyth, Cat. B. Mas. As. Soc. p. 71 (1849) ; et 



auctorum plurimorum Jerdon, &c. 



Cuculus horsfieldi, Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E.I. Co. ii. p. 703 (1858). 

 Cuculus cantor, Illiger,fide Cab. Mus. Hein. iv. p. 34 (1862). 

 Cuculus canorinus, Cab. Mus. Hein. iv. p. 35 (1862). 

 Cuculus kelungensis, Swinhoc, Ibis, 1863, p. 394. 

 Cuculus monosyllabicus, Swinhoe, Ibis, 1865, p. 545. 



This species winters in Burma, the islands of the Malay Archipelago, New Guinea, 

 and Australia. I have an example in my collection from Madagascar, which may have 

 migrated from the Himalayas to winter there. The occurrence in South Africa of inter- 

 mediate forms between this species and C. capensis, which only differs in having the 

 upper breast chestnut, suggests the idea that it may be a resident in Madagascar. In 

 North-west Africa Cuckoos are found exactly intermediate, both in size and colour, 

 between C. capcnsis and C. canorus. 



I met with the Himalayan Cuckoo in Siberia, and remarked the similarity of its note 

 to that of the Hoopoe. I afterwards found that Jerdon had made a similar observation. 

 Ayres makes precisely the same remark respecting C. gularis from South-east Africa ; and 

 Edward Newton describes the note of a Cuckoo which he observed in Madagascar as like 

 that of our bird with a bad cold. 



