OF EASTERN TURKESTAN. 135 
short of tail, 1:3 to 1°6 ; weight, 2°8 oz. to 3°8 oz. Bill, upper 
mandible, horny black ; lower mandible, greenish yellow, dusky 
at tip; irides, straw color; eyelids, grey ; edges of gape and 
eyelids, yellow ; legs and feet, yellow or orange yellow; claws, 
yellow horny, some of them dusky. 
(4). Juv. Yarkand, 8th June.—Length,7°8 ; expanse, 15:4 $ 
wing, 4:5; tail, 26; tarsus, 0°85; bill, from gape, 0:9; 
closed wings fall short of tail, 1-1; weight, 2°5 oz. Bill, dusky ; 
edges of gape, orange red ; legs and feet, fleshy ; claws, dusky. 
(5). 2 Juv. Taskhama, 29th June.—Length, 86; 
expanse, 15; wing, 5:3; tail, 3-7; tarsus, 0-9; bill, from gape, 
1:1; closed wings short of tail, 1:4; weight, 1°9 oz. Bill 
dusky at tip and above; lower mandible, livid horny ; mouth 
and edge of gape, deep orange; irides, hazel; legs and feet, 
light fleshy ; claws, light horn color, purplish at their bases. 
The Common Cuckoo arrives in the plains of Eastern Turkes- 
tan about the middle of April, and leaves about the beginning 
of August. In May and June their well-known cry may be 
heard in every orchard about Yarkand, but towards the end of 
July the birds seem to get scarce and are never heard calling ; 
young birds of this species were seen near Karghalik on the 
3rd August, so they are probably somewhat later in migrating 
than their parents. I often noticed at Yarkand that the Cuc- 
koo before beginning its usual note, gave a prolonged sort of 
ery, somewhat resembling that of the Toad (Bufo viridis), but 
much louder. A young bird, picked up in a clump of poplars 
at Taskhama, was very ferocious—biting at one’s hand vigor- 
ously ; its head looked curiously large for its body, and when 
about to be fed it opened its mouth so very widely as to re- 
mind one at once, of one of those square-mouthed travelling 
bags. This young bird had evidently sustained some injury 
to its right wing (which was an inch and _ half shorter than the 
left one) probably by falling out of its nest. 
The Yarkandis have curious accounts to give about this 
species. In the first place they are well aware of the parasitic 
habits of the bird, and of the young Cuckoo ejecting its foster- 
brothers from the nest; they say that the eggs are deposited 
in the nests of Lanius arenarius, Euspiza luteola, Erythrospiza 
obsoleta and Cyanecula suecica, but never more than one egg 
in any nest. ‘Then they say that all Cuckoos are of the female 
sex, and not very particular in their choice of husbands—JZa- 
nius arenarius, Nisoria undata and frogs (!) even being select- 
ed indifferently ! 
The Turki name for the bird is Kakkok, which is, I think, a 
better imitation of the cry than that conveyed by our English 
name, Cuckoo. 
