2 THE AUSTRAL AVIAN RECORD [Vol. I 



NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN CUCKOOS. 



I have been long interested in the forms and nomen- 

 clature of Australian Cuckoos, and have already 

 published some notes regarding the latter (Nov. 

 Zool., Vol. XVIII., p. 16, 1911). Since then I have 

 gone more fully into this matter, and find that a general 

 revision is necessary both as regards the generic and 

 specific names and the forms recognisable. I herewith 

 attempt such a revision, with the hope that criticism 

 and co-operation will later enable me to deal more 

 completely with the problems here indicated. 



In the Australian Museum Special Catalogue No. I., 

 Vol. III., A. J. North recently dealt with this group, 

 and the facts as I read them, unfortunately compel me 

 to differ from his conclusions. 



Firstly, to deal with the generic names : In my 

 Handlist I admitted as genera Cuculus, Cacomantis, 

 Mesocalius, Chalcococcyx, and Eudynamis. I do not 

 propose here to touch upon the aberrant forms Scythrops 

 and Centropus. North did not review the whole of the 

 species admitted as Australian, but only wrote upon 

 those that interested him from an oological point of 

 view. He did not discuss the generic status, though 

 entering into details regarding specific names. 



I recognised two species as referable to the genus 

 Cuculus and three to Cacomantis. Upon comparison 

 I could not separate the members of the latter genus 

 save by slight difference in size and coloration, which 

 I do not consider to be generic characters. It will be 

 noted that a species which, following the Cat. Birds 

 Brit. Mus., I classed in Cuculus, was considered by that 

 most accurate ornithologist Count Salvadori, to be a 

 member of the genus Cacomantis, and for it alone a 

 genus Heteroscenes had been instituted by Cabanis 

 (Mus. Hein., Vol. IV., p. 26, 1862). When a con- 

 necting link exists, so that the limits of a colour genus 

 cannot even be maintained, I feel justified in advocat- 

 ing its rejection. Moreover in the genus Cacomantis the 



