80 A FIRST LIST OF THE 



Captain Fielden was well acquainted with that bird, and I 

 therefore mention the fact to draw the attention of observers in 

 Upper Pegu to the circumstance. 



207.— Hierococcyx sparveroides, Vigors. 



In Part VIII of the Birds of Asia, Mr. Gould figures a Cuculus 

 strenuus, which he considers distinct from the present species. " In 

 outward appearance/'' he says, " this species so closely resembles 

 Cuculus sparveroides, that one description would nearly serve for 

 both ; but in size it so far exceeds that bird, as well as every other 

 true Cuckoo that I have yet seen, that I have no doubt of its 

 being distinct." Mr. Gould's specimen was from Manilla, and he 

 notes the dimensions at: Length, 155; bill, 1*25; wing, 9 - 37 ; 

 tail 9. 



My museum had long been packed up, and when I obtained a 

 specimen — length, 16"25 ; wing, over 9 ; and bill, 1*45 inches from 

 gape — I thought I had an undoubted specimen of Cuculus strenuus, 

 and notified Thayetmyo as another locality for this species. Having 

 now, however, examined my whole series, I find that even the Hima- 

 layan birds vary from 14 to 1525 in length; that the wings 

 vary from 8*5 to 9 - 25, and the bills from 1*18 to 135; and that 

 the Thayetmyo specimen, though somewhat longer, and with a 

 stouter bill, has not so long a wing as some of the Darjeeling 

 birds. One of the Darjeeling birds is quite as fine and large a 

 specimen as the one Mr. Gould figures as strenuus, and indeed, 

 except that his artist has puffed the throat out a little too much, 

 might have been the specimen figured ; strenuus must therefore, 

 I fear, now be relegated to the limbo of synonymes. 



Mr. Oates says : " This bird, if I have rightly identified it, is 

 extremely common in the hills, but rarely found in the plains. It 

 calls chiefly in the mornings and evenings, often long after dark ; 

 towards sunset it utters two exquisitely melodious whistling notes, 

 very different to anything contained in its usual song. A male 

 measured: Length, 16*35 ; expanse, 26; tail, from vent, 8*4; 

 wing, 9-1; bill, from gape, T45; tarsus, 1. The legs and feet 

 were deep yellow ; gape, bright yellow ; upper mandible from the 

 nostrils to the tip, deep brown, there being a narrow darker brown 

 streak from the nostrils, in a line with the closed gape ; lower 

 mandible, horn color, darker on the edges and tip; iris, dull 

 yellow ; eyelids, bright yellow ; claws, flesh color/'' 



A specimen sent by Captain Feilden, also a male, is very simi- 

 lar in size and in every other respect. 



209.— Ololygon tenuirostris, Gray. 



Mr. Oates sent a specimen, unfortunately destroyed in transit, 

 which I believe to have belonged to this species, which I know 



