CUCULUS SONNERATI. 



(SONNEBAT'S CUCKOO.) 



Cuculus sonnerati, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. no. 24, p. 215 (1790) ; Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1842, p. 906 ; 

 id. Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 72 (1849) ; Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 129 (1852) ; Layard, 

 Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 452 ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 325 (1862) ; Holds- 

 worth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 430 ; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 15, et 1875, p. 284. 



Cuculus Mmalayanus, Jerdon, Cat. B. S. India, Madr. Journ. 1840, xi. p. 220. 



Polyphasia sonnerati, Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. ii. p. 699 (1856). 



Penthoceryx sonnerati, Cab. et Heine, Mus. Hein. iv. p. 16 (1862) ; Warden, Ibis, 1872, 

 p. 367. 



Le petit Coacou des Indes, Sonn. Voyage aux Indes, ii. p. 211 (1782); Sonnerafs Cuckoo, 

 Lath. Syn. Suppl. p. 102 ; The Banded Bay Cuckoo, Jerdon ; Rufous Cuckoo of some; 

 " Fine-ioeather Bird," Planters in Ceylon. 



P'unchi koha, lit. " little Cuckoo," Sinhalese. 



Adult male. Length 9-5 to 10-0 inches ; wing 4*9 to 5-1 ; tail 4-8 to 4*9 ; tarsus 0-7 ; outer anterior toe 065, claw 

 (straight) 025 ; bill to gape l'l. 



Iris brownish red, paling at the outer edge to slaty and in some to yellowish ; bill blackish, gape fleshy yellow or 

 reddish ; base of lower mandible bluish, in some yellowish ; inside of mouth orange-reddish ; legs and feet 

 brownish slaty, or bluish leaden in some, the soles yellowish, claws dusky blackish. 



Forehead, top of the head, hind neck, upper surface, and wings hair- or nut-brown, with a green lustre, barred on the 

 head, body, and wing-coverts with rufous-bay ; feathers of the forehead with white bases, showing as spots on 

 the surface ; on the hind neck the bars almost monopolize the feather and are lighter ; the upper tail-coverts 

 have marginal spots or indentations of, and are tipped with, rufous ; the quills and primary-coverts are unbarred, 

 but are rufescent whitish inwardly, and are externally finely edged with rufous ; tail deep brown, tipped white 

 and edged or indented with rufous-bay, the inner webs of all but the centre feathers rufous with dark bars next 

 the shaft, these latter have rufescent tips sometimes and at others want the light extremities altogether ; entire 

 under surface and feathers above the eye and down the side of the head between the nape and ear-coverts white, 

 with narrow wavy blackish bars; ear-coverts darkish; the under tail-coverts and flanks, and in some specimens 

 (probably young) the lower parts, tinted with fulvous ; edge of wing white. 



Female. Is, according to my experience, generally a smaller bird than the male. Length 9 - 5 iuches ; wing 4-5 to 4-9 : 



bill to gape I/O to 1/05. 

 Iris hazel or reddish, with a yellowish outer circle ; bill lighter than that of the male. 

 Has the upper-surface bars paler than hi the male, and the under tail-coverts pure white or less coloured than the 



other sex. 

 Scarcely any two specimens of this Cuckoo are barred above precisely alike ; with age the transverse marks seem to 



reduce themselves. 



Young. Birds of the year are said to be more coarsely barred with paler bauds than the adult, and to have the lower 



parts more tinged with fulvous. 

 Immature birds cannot be confounded with the rufous phase of Polyphasia, being, first of all, stouter or more massive, 



the bill much wider ; and, secondly, they are more narrowly barred, and the under surface is all white, whereas in 



the latter the throat, chest, and generally the breast and abdomen are rufous. 



Obs. This handsome little Cuckoo is closely allied to the Malayan species C. pravatus, Horsf., which inhabits Malacca 

 and many of the islands of the Archipelago, including Sumatra, Java, and Borneo. This is a much smaller bird 

 and more neatly barred, and wants the green gloss on the upper surface. Two individuals which I have examined 



2h 



