Genus HIEKOCOCCYX. 

 Bill wide at the gape. Wings shorter than in Cuculus ; the 1st quill short and the 3rd 

 longer than the 2nd. Tail subeven. 



Plumage Hawk-like in character, the young being striped beneath. 



HIEROCOCCYX VARIUS. 



(THE COMMON HAWK-CUCKOO.) 



Cuculus varius, Vahl, Skriv. af Natur. Selsk. iv. p. 60 (1797) ; Strickland, Ann. & Mag. Nat. 

 Hist. 1846, p. 398; Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. no. 339, p. 70 ; Layard et Kelaart, 

 Cat. Ceylon B. App. Prodromus, p. 60 (1853) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, 

 xiii. p. 452. 



Cuculus fugax, Horsf. Tr. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 178 (1821); Jerdon, Cat. B. S. India, Madr. 

 Journ. 1840, xi. p. 219. 



Cuculus lathami, J. E. Gray, 111. Ind. Zool. p. 34, fig. 2 (1832). 



Hierococcyx varius, Horsfield & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. ii. p. 700 (1856) ; Jerdon, B. 

 of Ind. i. p. 329 ; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 431 ; Ball, Str. Feath. 1874, p. 393 ; Bligh, 

 J. A. S. (Ceylon Branch) 1874, p. 67; Bourdillon, ibid. 1876, p. 392; Ball, ibid. 

 1877, p. 413. 



Bychan Cuckoo ; Sokagu Cuckoo, Latham, Hist, of Birds. 



Kupak or Upak, Hind.; Kokgallo, Bengalese; Kuttipitta, Tel.; Takkhat, lit. "Custom- 

 house Bird," in Deccan ; Irolan, Malabar (ajjud Jerdon). 



Adult male and female. Length 13*0 to 14 - 7 inches ; wing 7"4 to 8 - 2 (Hume) ; tail 6'5 to 6'8 ; tarsus 0"9 to I'D ; 



outer anterior toe and claw 1/2 to 1-3 ; bill to gape 1-15 to 1-3. 

 Females are smaller than males. The above limit of the wing is that of a male, and must be exceptional. Several 



specimens I have examined from Ceylon and N.W. India vary from 7 - 5 to 7 - 8 inches, which I imagine is about the 



average limit. 



Iris yellow ; bill, upper mandible and tip of lower brown, base of under mandible and gape yellow ; orbits bright 

 yellow ; feet gamboge-yellow, claws dusky at the tips. 



Above dark ashen grey, darkest on the interscapular region and palest on the rump and upper tail-coverts ; basal 

 margins of the feathers on the hind neck more or less rufous, showing on the surface of the plumage ; quills and 

 winglet grey-brown ; inner webs of primaries partly crossed from the edge with wide bars of white, more or less 

 mottled with grey ; extreme tips of the secondaries pale ; tail brownish ashen, tipped with rufous and crossed 

 with a broad subterminal band of blackish brown, above which are four- narrow bars of the same, with an adjacent 

 pale cross ray at the lower edge, which expands and is more conspicuous on the outer feathers ; under surface of 

 the light portions whitish. 



Lores, cheeks, and ear-coverts bluish ashen; chin ashen, the extreme point darkest; throat and chest rufous, the 

 centres of the feathers bluish grey in some, with the basal edges whitish, in others the whole basal portion of the 

 feather is bluish grey ; lower part of chest, breast, and flanks barred with the same on the rufous ground, which 

 pales gradually into unmarked buff-white on the belly, vent, and under tail-coverts ; under wing-coverts pale 

 rufous or fulvescent, the greater series barred with bluish ashen ; under surface of quill-bars buff-white. 



When not fully adult the markings of the under surface are darker and the rufous is confined to the chest. A 

 specimen shot by Mr. Bligh in Kotmalie has the lores whitish ; the chin and cheeks dark slate, with the centre 

 of the throat white ; the chest is washed with rufous, this colour is barred with slate, which gradually darkens on 



