2 THE AUSTRAL AVIAN RECORD [Vol. III. 



recognised the bird there named Columba pallida as a Cuckoo, 

 though neither to Strickland nor Gray was it familiar. 



Apparently upon Gould's citation as above, Cabanis and 

 Heine made use of Latham's name for the Cuckoo, for which 

 they proposed a new generic name Heteroscenes (Mus. Hein., 

 Vol. IV., pi. i., p. 26, 1862). Being thus endorsed, Gould 

 himself made use of it in the Handb. Birds Austr., Vol. L, 

 p. 615, 1865, but referred the bird to the genus Coxomantis, 

 calling the Cuckoo, Cacomantis pallidus Latham. 



This usage became general and does not seem to have been 

 questioned until 1905, when in the Nov. Zool., Vol. XII., 

 p. 217, Hartert called the Cuckoo Cucidus variegalus as of 

 Vieillot, writing : "I believe we can use Vieillot's name 

 variegalus (though I admit that the description is not at all 

 convincing) if we accept Pucheran's statements, I.e. How, 

 on the other hand, Latham's name Columba pallida came to 

 be accepted for this cuckoo is incomprehensible. It would 

 seem that Messrs. Cabanis and Heine (Mus. Hein., IV., p. 26) 

 have first been guilty of it. Their quotation, and also the 

 one in the Cat. B., XIX., p. 261, most likely copied without 

 verification, is wrong, because the name Columba pallida 

 is first given in the Ind. Orn. Suppl., p. lx. (1801), and 

 not in the Syn. Suppl., II., p. 270, where it is only called 

 the ' Pale Pigeon.' There is hardly anything in Latham's 

 description that refers to the cuckoo in question ; but what 

 disagrees most is the description of the tail, which is said 

 to be ' very pale or whitish ' with ' the two middle tail- 

 feathers dusky,' and that of the wings." 



In the Ibis, Jan. 1906, p. 55, North, however, would not 

 accept variegalus but proposed to recognise inornatus Vigors 

 and Horsfield, the name by which this bird was known from 

 1827 to 1862. In my Handlist, 1908, p. 57, I used inornatus 

 following North, but in the Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII. , Jan. 

 1911, p. 16, I reverted to Cuculus pallidus, giving as 

 explanation : " Dr. Hartert, in the Nov. Zool., XII., p. 217, 

 1905, first cast doubt upon the traditional identification of 

 Latham's Pale Pigeon with the Cuckoo. From an examination 



