CUCULUS MACULATUS. 



(THE INDIAN EMERALD CUCKOO.) 



Trogon maculatus, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 404 (juv.) (1788). 



Chrysococcyx lucidus, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1842, xi. p. 917 ; Jerdon, 2nd Suppl. Cat. B. S. India, 



Madr. Joum. 1845, xiii. no. 225. 

 Chrysococcyx smaragdinus, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1846, xv. p. 53. 

 Cuculus (Chrysococcyx) xanthorhynchos, Layard et Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. Suppl. p. 60 



(1853). 

 Chrysococcyx hodgsoni, Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. ii. p. 705 (1856) ; Jerdon, B. of 



Ind. i. p. 338 (1862); Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 394. 

 Lamprococcyx smaragdinus, Cab. et Heine, Mus. Hein. iv. p. 13, note, no. 6 (1862). 

 Lamprococcyx maculatus, Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 432. 

 Chalcites hodgsoni, Gould, B. of Asia, pi. xxi. (1877). 

 Le Curucui tachete, Brown, 111. Ind. Zool. pi. 13. 

 Angpha, Lepchas (Jerdon). 



Adult male and female. Length 6-0 to 6 - 4 inches ; wing 4-0 to 4-3; tail 2-7 to 2-9 ; tarsus 0*5; outer anterior toe 

 (without claw) 0'62 ; bill to gape 0-75. 



Iris brown or reddish brown ; bill yellow at the base, with the terminal portion brown ; legs and feet reddish brown. 



Above brilliant emerald-green, with more or less of a coppery tinge, most prevalent at the margins of the feathers ; the 

 back and scapulars with a golden lustre when viewed in some lights ; quills metallic brown-green, the inner webs 

 of the primaries rufous at the centre and white at the base ; tail much tinged with coppery, the outermost feathers 

 barred with white and the interspaces blackish green ; throat metallic green ; under surface white, crossed with 

 bold bauds of bronzed green. 



Young. The immature bird has (he back, wings, and rump metallic green, more or less overshot with a coppery gloss, 

 and the feathers barred terminally with rufous and dusky green ; the head and hind neck rufous, with a strong 

 coppery lustre, the feathers barred with blackish brown, and sometimes with whitish as well ; tail green, the 

 feathers rufous externally, the outermost feathers mostly white, barred with black-green or blackish, the next two 

 pairs barred with blackish and tipped with white ; barring of the under surface duller than in adults. 



Immature examples vary much in the extent and character of their rufous coloration. An individual in my collection 

 has the back, scapulars, and wings brilliant emerald-green as in the adult, with the head and hind neck rufous, 

 strongly illumined with coppery ; the crown and nape barred with whitish and brown, the former across the centres 

 of the feathers ; the outermost feathers are white externally and rufous internally, barred with greenish black, 

 the penultimate almost entirely rufous, with green cross bands on the inner webs and a broad subterminal bar of 

 the same, the extreme tip being white ; the next pair are rufous on the outer webs, barred with green. 



Obs. This species is not very aptly named maculatus. It was figured by Brown from a young bird with spotted wing- 

 coverts sent from Ceylon by Governor Loten ; he named it the " Spotted Curucui,"' from which Gmeliu gave it 

 its title of maculatus, looking upon the bird, however, as a Trogon. 



C. lucidus, with which this Cuckoo has been occasionally confounded, is found over most of the Australian continent. 

 and differs from the Indian bird in being of a paler, more coppery, and less lustrous green on the upper surface, 

 and the whole of the under parts are barred with metallic greenish copper-colour. The young bird is brownish 

 above, the green colour being confined to the back and tail ; the throat and chest tinged and barred with pale 

 brownish. The wing in this species varies from 4T to 4-3 inches. 



Distribution. — The fact alone of Brown recording his specimen of the " Spotted Curucui," figured in his 

 ' Illustrations of Indian Zoology/ as having been sent from Ceylon by Governor Loten, entitles this species to 

 a place in our lists. It has not, to the best of my knowledge, since been met with or heard of even in the 



