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



This bird is extremely common in Ceylon and the South of India, but 

 becomes much more rare further North, especially to the West. It is 

 met with in small numbers throughout Bengal and, perhaps, rather more 

 plentifully in Assam, though even there I have found it rare ; it extends 

 through the Shan States, Northern and Southern Burmah, and is com- 

 mon again in the South of that province, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, 

 Borneo and Java. 



Genus Chrysococoyx (Boie). 

 This lovely genus cannot possibly be mistaken for any other genus of 

 Indian cuckoo for the upper parts in all stages, but that of the nestlings' 

 first plumage, is more or less metallic. Both species of the genus are 

 also far smaller than any other Indian cuckoo. 



Key to Species. 



Upper parts glossed with metallic violet.... ^.xanthorhynchus ft ad. 



Upper parts glossed with metallic green maeulatus ft ad. 



Head more or less light rufous, mantle green maeulatus $ et. juv. 



Head not rufous, mantle tinged with copper-bronze xanthorhynchus 



$ et. juv. 

 The nestlings, when a fair size, may be distinguished generally by the 

 fact that xanthorhynchus has the head and neck rufous, with longitudinal 

 streaks, whilst maeulatus has the head rufous, with the chin and throat 

 barred . 



Chbysococcyx xanthorhynchus. (Horsf.) 

 The Violet Cuckoo. 

 Chrysococcyx xanthorhynchus. Hume, Oat. No. 211 bis. ; id., S. F., 

 IX, p. 248 ; XI, p. 75; Oates, ibid., X, p. 193; id., B. of Burm., II, 

 p. 114 ; Blanford, Fauna of B. I., Ill, p. 221. 



Chalcococcyx xanthorhynchus. Hume, S. F., II, p. 191 ; ibid., Ill, 

 p. 81 ; Hume and Davidson, ibid., VI, pp. 161, 506 ; Shelly, Cat. 

 B. M., XIX, p. 289. 



Chrysococcyx limborgi. Tweedale, S. F., VII, p. 319 ; Hume, Cat. 

 No. 211 quat.; Bingham, S. F., IX, p. 168 ; Oates, B. of Burm., II, 

 p. 116. 



Chrysococcyx malayanus. Hume, Cat. No. 211 ter.; id., S. F., XI. 

 p. 76. 



With the exception of my own observations and those of the late 

 Mr. H. A. Hole, I have no note on the oology of this cuckoo. 



The first egg I received of this bird was from Mr. Hole who found it 

 in a nest of Turdinus abbotti (Abbot's Babbler), together with two eggs 



