CUCULUS PASSERINUS. 



(THE INDIAN PLAINTIVE CUCKOO.) 



Cuculus passerinus, Vahl, Skriv. af Nat. Selsk. iv. p. 57 (1797). 

 Cuculus niger, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1842, xi. p. 908. 

 * Polyphasia tenuirostris, Hodgs. Cat. B. Mus. E. 1. Co. ii. p. 698 (1856, in part). 

 Cuculus tenuirostris, Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 129 (1852) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. 



Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 453. 

 Polyphasia nigra, Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 333 (1862). 

 Ololygon passerinus, Gray, Hand-list Birds, ii. p. 217 (1871) ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, 



p. 136 (1873) ; Ball, Str. Feath. 1874, p. 394 ; Butler, ibid. 1875, p. 461 ; Ball, ibid. 



1876, p. 235. 

 Polyphasia passerina, J erdon, Ibis, 1872, pi. i. ; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 431; Legge, Ibis, 



1875, p. 284. 

 Narrow-billed Cuckoo, Kelaart; Pousiya, Mahrattas; Chinna katti pitta, Telugu. 

 Koha, Sinhalese. 



Adult male and female. Length 8-75 to 9 - 2 inches ; wing 4-4 to 4-5 ; tail 4-5 ; tarsus 0-65 ; outer anterior toe 0-65, 



claw (straight) 0-23 ; bill to gape 0-9. 

 Iris light red or yellowish red, in some red with a well-defined yellowish outer circle : bill blackish, often with a reddish 



tinge, the base of lower mandible slightly paler, inside of mouth orange-red ; legs and feet (very variable) light. 



reddish brown or greyish brown with a yellowish tinge, in some dusky reddish and in others yellowish ; soles 



yellow, claws blackish. 

 Above dark ashy, blending on the sides of the neck into the uniform pale cinereous of the throat, chest, and breast ; 



upper back, scapulars, and wing-coverts glossed with greenish ; rump and upper tail-coverts more bluish than the 



head, the former edged with white at the base ; quills plain brown ; tail dark ashy blue, deeply tipped, barred on 



the inner webs, and edged outwardly towards the base with white ; under tail-coverts, vent, and lower part of 



belly white, blending into the hue of the breast. 



In some specimens there is more white on the abdomen than in others ; and at times the under tail-coverts even are 

 sullied with grey. Some individuals, otherwise in the normal adult plumage, have the tail scarcely tipped, and 

 the inner edge of the feathers only slightly indented with white; and occasionally the tail is devoid of white 

 markings. 



Young. Birds of the year vary considerably in their coloration; but their prevailing character is to be marked with 

 rufous, and nearly always on the tail (this has the mesial spots and marginal bars rufous), and the chin and 

 throat with more or less of the same colour, while the under surface is marked with whitish or fulvescent bars. 

 In some the caudal bars are white near the tips of the feathers and rufous at the base. 



Hepatic phase. This species assumes frequently a rufous plumage analogous to that in which the common Cuckoo is 

 often found. An example shot in March at Colombo has the upper surface, wings, tail, sides of the neck, and 

 throat bright rufous ; the feathers of the head and hind neck with a few terminal bars of blackish ; the back, 

 scapulars, and wing-coverts barred with greenish black ; the terminal portion of the quills and the entire outer 

 webs of the first primaries dull brown ; shafts of the tail-feathers and a subterminal spot black, tips of all but 



* The trifling differences in the bill and plumage of the members of this genus are not, I consider, sufficient to 

 separate it from Cuculus as restricted. The structure of wing and tail is nearly similar in both. The same may be 

 said of the next species, which differs from Cuculus mainly in the metallic lustre of the plumage. The tail in the bronze 

 Cuckoos is, as a rule, less graduated than in Cuculus; but it is variable, scarcely any two species being exactly alike. 



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