CUCKOOS. 9 



only a genus but a separate subfamily. They are ground-birds, of medium or large 

 size, remarkable for the long spur on the first toe, whence their English name is 

 derived. They build nests, and lay several white eggs, the shell of which is 

 chalky, showing an approach to the remarkable eggs of the anis described farther 

 on. The general colour of the coucals is red and black, but some of them are 

 entirely black, while the Australian pheasant-cuckoo (Centropus phasianellus) is 

 banded with brown and buff. The young birds of all the other species have a 

 similar kind of plumage, and it is said that some species also possess a winter 

 garb or " seasonal plumage." If this is the case, it lasts for a very short period. 



EGYITIAN COUCAL (^ liat. size). 



The Indian coucal (C. sinensis) is a species of large size, measuring nearly 

 two feet in length, and black in colour, with the mantle and wings chestnut, and 

 having a blue gloss on the head and a green gloss on the under-parts. It is found 

 all over India and Ceylon, and, like the rest of the genus, has a curious howling 

 note, whoot, whoot, whoot, whoot, followed after a pause of four or five seconds by 

 kurook, kurook, kurook, kurook. The nest is generally domed, and is a rough 

 structure, described by Mr. Hume as a " hollow, oblate spheroid, some eighteen 

 inches in external diameter, and from six to eight inches in height, with a large 

 hole on one side, from the entrance of which to the back of the nest inside may bo 

 twelve inches. This, of course, is not large enough to admit the whole bird, so 

 that, when sitting, its tail is commonly seen projecting outside the nest. The latter 



