THE ISLANDS OF THE BAY OF BENGAL. 195 



and interscapulary region a very deep maroon, much deepest in 

 freshly moulted birds. The quills more or less tinged with hair 

 brown towards their tips, the amount of this again varying 

 greatly in different specimens. Lower back and rump always 

 a somewhat darker brown than the neck and upper back, but 

 not fading so much as these do, and therefore sometimes in the 

 bleached plumaged birds, a much darker and quite different 

 brown from that of these parts. Tail in the freshly moulted bird 

 very deep hair brown, almost black, with a distinct purple gloss, 

 very soon fading, the fading commencing at the bases of the 

 central feathers along their margins, and the whole tail gradually 

 sharing in the change, so that in some much bleached birds 

 the whole of the central tail feathers, and the greater portion 

 of the outer webs of the lateral feathers, especially towards 

 their bases, are a dull, pale, almost whitey brown. In some 

 half-bleached birds, the shafts of the feathers of the upper 

 back, nape, and breast are conspicuously paler than their fea- 

 thers, and in the darker fresh moulted birds, there is sometimes, 

 but not generally, a slight difference in color between the shafts 

 and webs of the brown feathers. 



Lord Walden's figure in the Ibis is of a half-bleached bird. 



Davison says : — a The voice of the Andaman Coucal is very 

 similar to that of C. rufipennis, but more subdued. It is not 

 uncommon in some parts of the Andamans, and extends also to the 

 Cocos and Table Island. It is found in the forest, generally on the 

 outskirts ; but prefers gardens, and is particularly partial to the 

 tracts of sugarcane through which it makes its way with 

 great adroitness, and from which it is only with great diffi- 

 culty dislodged. It is very difficult to flush when there happens 

 to be no ready means of escape for it. I once saw one fly into 

 a small isolated clump of bushes about 10 feet square and 15 

 feet high. At first I thought to dislodge it by throwing stones 

 into the bush ; but no amount of stone-throwing would make 

 it show, and it was only by arming a man with a long stick, 

 and making him almost beat the bushes down that it was induced 

 to break cover. In habits' it much resembles the other 

 Centropi feeding on the ground, on which it both walks and runs 

 well/; 



This species breeds in the Andamans during the latter part of 

 the hot weather and beginning of the rains. I have no detailed 

 information as to its nidification ; but Captain Wimberley, who 

 sent me two eggs which he took in the neighbourhood of Port 

 Blair, informs me that he took them in June, and that the nest 

 was composed of sticks and placed in a tolerably high tree in 



