324 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



It has a peculiar loud call, something like that of the Hoopoe, 

 repeated three or four times, as hoot-hoot-hoot, hoot with a higher 

 note at the commencement, only heard Avhen you are near the bird. 

 It can be heard at a great distance off. This Cuckoo does not begin 

 his calling so early as C. canorus and C. micropterus. I have, on 

 several occasions, about Darjeeling, heard these three Cuckoos 

 calling, all within the same minute, and occasionally the next 

 species also, and likewise Hierococcyx sparverloides. 



It is evidently this bird which Hutton alludes to, when he remarks 

 that he shot the C. striatus in the act of uttering another note, 

 which he writes whuot-ivhoot-whoot ; unless, indeed, the note of that 

 species resembles the call of the present bird, rather than of microp- 

 terus, which is not at all likely. 



201. Cuculus poliocephalus, Latham. 



Blyth, Cat. 343— HoKSF., Cat. 1026— Jerdon, 2nd Suppl. 

 Cat. 223, bis. — C. Himalayanus, Gould, Cent. PI. 54 — C. 

 Bartlettii, La yard — Dangliam, Lepch. — Pichu-giapu, Bhot. 



The Small Cuckoo. 



Descr. — Male — Upper plumage ashy, slightly glossed with green 

 on the back and upper tail-coverts ; quills brown, also with a green 

 gloss, and numerous close large white spots ; tail deep ashy, almost 

 black, with large white spots on the middle of each feather, on the 

 edge of the inner webs, and at the tip : beneath, the chin and throat 

 arc, pale ashy, Avith some rusty about the breast; the lower parts 

 white, with rather narrow distant bars ; under tail-coverts spotless. 



Many adults have the upper parts fine rufous-bay, spotless on 

 the forehead, sides of neck, and rump, but elegantly barred with 

 dusky across the scapulars, wings and tail, and faintly on the 

 crown, hind-neck, and interscapulars ; throat, fore-neck, and breast, 

 whitish along the middle, stained with rufous laterally, and with 

 dark bars, more or less distinct ; the rest of the lower parts 

 broadly barred, as are also the tail-coverts. The C. hepaticus, 

 auct., is the C. canorus in a corresponding phase of plumage ; and 

 the same is occasionally (more or less frequently) exhibited by 

 others of the tribe. 



