360 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY , Vol. XVII. 



Key to Species. 



A. No distinct dark cheek band from the eye. 



a. Abdomen barred. 



a." Wing always over 8*2'' sparverioides. 



b." Wing never as much as 8'2" varius. 



b. Abdomen spotted or streaked, never barred nisicolor. 



B. A distinct dark band, running through eye nanus. 



The above key only holds good as regards the adults, as young spar- 

 verioides and varius both have the lower parts spotted and streaked, 

 the spots becoming bars as the birds grow older. In young sparveri- 

 oides the chin is blackish, in young varius the chin is white or rufescent- 

 white like the rest of the lower parts, and in nisicolor the chin, throat and 

 upper breast are dark- brown, the feathers more or less narrowly 

 edged with rufous. 



This will probably suffice to discriminate between nestlings found in 

 other birds' nests, and is important in forming a clue as to which nests 

 we may expect to get different species of cuckoos' eggs in. 



Hierococotx sfarvekioides. (Vigors.) 

 The Large Hawk- Cuckoo. 



Hierococcyx sparverioides. Jerdon, B. of I., I, p. 331 ; Hume, S. F., 

 Ill, p. 80 ; IX, p. 72 ; id., Cat. No. 207 ; Armstrong, S. F., IV, p. 311 ; 

 Hume and Dav., ibid., VI, p. 157 ; Ball, ibid., VII, p. 207 ; Scully, ibid., 

 VIII, p. 256; Dav., ibid., X, p. 359 ; Oates, B. of Burm., II, p. 108 ; 

 Oates, Nests and Eggs, 2nd Ed., II, p. 384 ; Shelly, Cat. of B. M., 

 XIX, p. 232 ; Stuart Baker, Jour., Bom. N. fl. Soc, X, p. 367 ; 

 Bknford, F. of B. I., Ill, p. 211 ; Dresser, Pal. Birds, I, p. 473. 



As regards the eggs of this fine cuckoo Ccl. Rattray is again in the 

 enviable position of being the only man who has taken an egg ab- 

 solutely without doubt. He says : " I cannot at all understand or confirm 

 the notes imde by Miss Cockburn and Mr. Morgan as to this bird build- 

 ing its own nest, but agree with Mr. Hodgson, as I shot the bird yester- 

 day with an egg ready for expulsion. It was blue, like that of the egg of 

 Acridoiheres, but larger, not white. It corresponds exactly with an egg 

 I found some years previously in the nest of Myiophoneus temmincki 

 (The Himalayan Whistling-Thrush). I had hoard these cuckoos' calling 

 in this nullah for some days, and it was one of these birds flying up 

 from the bank that attracted my attention to the Myiophoneus nest 



