CUCULUS POLIOCEPHALUS. 



(THE SMALL CUCKOO.) 



Cuculus poliocephalus, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 214 (1790) ; Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1842, p. 904, et 

 Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 71 (1849); Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. ii. p. 704 

 (1856); Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 324; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 135 (1873). 



Cuculus Mmalayanus, Gould, Cent. Him. Birds, pi. 54 (1832). 



Hierococcyx poliocephalus, Bp. Consp. Gen. Av. i. p. 204 (1850). 



Cuculus hartlettii, Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 452 (juv.). 



Cuculus lineatus, Less. Traite d'Orn. p. 152. 



Cuculus tamsuicus, Swinhoe, Ibis, 1865, p. 108. 



Cuculus % Blakiston and Pryer, Ibis, 1878, p. 227. 



The Hoary-headed Cuckoo of some Indian writers. 



Daugham, Lepchas ; Pichu-giapu, Bhootias (Jerdon). 



Hototogisu, Japanese. 



Adult male and female. Length 1O0 to 1075 inches ; wing 6-0 to 6-2 ; tail 5-2 to 6 - ; tarsus 0-75 to 0-85 ; outer 

 anterior toe and claw 0-9 to TO ; bill to gape I/O to 1-1. Expanse 17'3. 



The above dimensions are from three examples procured in Ceylon. A Japanese specimen measures — wing 6'3 inches ; 

 tail 5 - 7. 



Iris brown or brownish grey ; bill, upper mandible and tip of lower blackish, gape, base of under mandible, and eyelid 

 yellow ; inside of mouth the same, but the base of the palate orange-red ; legs and feet vellow, tarsus washed with 

 brownish ; claws brownish yellow. 



Above almost uniform bluish ashen, illumined strongly with greenish, mostly on the scapulars ; upper tail-coverts more 

 bluish than the back; primaries slaty brown, with a greenish tinge, barred with white; tail blackish, tinged 

 slightly with green, tipped with white, with a series of white shaft-spots and marginal indentations of the same ; 

 throat and fore neck pale fulvous, shaded with an ashen hue, and which colour blends softly into the grey of the 

 sides of the neck ; beneath, from the neck downwards, white, with the vent and under tail-coverts pale buff : 

 breast, flanks, and thigh-coverts crossed with narrow softened-edged bars of blackish. 



The above description is taken from a well-preserved Japanese example in Mr. Seebohm's collection, which is identical 

 with Indian specimens. 



Young. Above ashy brown ; the feathers of the head more or less tipped with white, these markings being often confined 

 to the superciliary region and occiput. Upper back, scapulars, and wing-coverts tipped and barred with whitish 

 or pale fulvous ; the lower back and upper tail-coverts marked with a series of white central transverse spots, the 

 latter more or less barred with rufous as well ; primaries and secondaries barred on the outer webs with rufous, 

 and on the inner with white, changing somewhat into rufous near the tips ; tail spotted as in the adult, and the 

 central feathers barred with rufescent ; chin and throat fulvous, barred with pale brownish ; under surface as in 

 the adult. 



Individuals vary much inter se in the markings of the upper surface, some specimens being banded with rufous instead 

 of white. An example shot in March at Colombo is acquiring the adult plumage, having the attire of the head, 

 back, and rump mixed with bluish-ashen feathers. 



Rufous phase. This species commonly assumes a rufous phase. Two individuals from Nepal which I have examined 

 in the British Museum are entirely rufous above, with the head, hind neck, back, scapulars, and wing-coverts 

 banded with blackish slaty, having a perceptible greenish lustre : in one the rump and upper tail-coverts are 

 almost unmarked, the feathers only having terminal bar-like spots ; the wings are greenish brown, barred with 

 yellowish rufous ; the tail glossy dark brown, barred with incomplete angular rufous bars, the feathers all ripped 

 with whitish ; chin and throat yellowish rufous, narrowly barred with blackish ; breast and lower parts white, 

 crossed with widely-separated blackish bars ; edge of under wing rufous, the rest of it white, barred with black. 



