Genus SUENICULUS. 

 Bill much as in Cuculus, the nostrils very protuberant and situated near the margin. Wings 

 moderate, with the 3rd and 4th quills subeqnal and longest. Tail forked, with outer feathers 

 short, and the penultimate the longest and forming the fork. Tibial plumes very long. Tarsus 

 partly feathered down the exterior side. 



SUKNICULUS LUGUBRIS. 



(THE DRONGO-CUCKOO.) 



Cuculus lugubris, Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. 1820, xiii. p. 179 (Java). 



Cuculus albopunctatus, Drap. Diet. Class. d'Hist. Nat. iv. p. 570 (1823), juv. 



Pseudomis lugubris, Hodgs. J. A. S. B. 1839, p. 137. 



Pseudornis dicruroides, Hodgs. J. A. S. B. 1859, p. 136 (Mountains of Nipaul). 



Cuculus dicruroides, Jerd. Cat. B. S. India, Madr. Journ. 1840, xi. p. 221 ; Layard et Kelaart, 



Cat. Prodromus, App. p. 60 (1853) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 453. 

 Surniculus dicruroides, Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 72 (1849) ; Horsfield & Moore, Cat. 



B. Mus. E. I. Co. ii. p. 695 (1856); Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 336 (1862); Swinhoe, Cat. 



B. of China, P. Z S. 1871, p. 394; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 431 ; David & Oust, 



Ois. de la Chine, p. 61 (1877). 

 Cacangelus lugubris, Cab. et Heine, Mus. Hein. iv. p. 17 (1862). 

 Surniculus lugubris, Walden, Ibis, 1872, p. 368. 

 The Fork-tailed Cuckoo, Europeans in Ceylon ; The Black Fork-tailed Cuckoo, Jerdon 



The Fork-tailed Drongo-Cucikoo, Blyth. 

 Kurrioviyum, Lepchas (Jerdon) ; Awon-Awon, Java. 



Adult male and female. Length 1O0 to 10 - 3 inches; wing 4-8 to 5'3; tail 5-4 to 5 - 7 (to tip of penultimate), 

 middle feathers about 1*5 shorter; tarsus 0-55 to 0-65; anterior toe 0-6, claw (straight) 0-25; bill to gape Oil 

 to 0-95. 



Iris brown ; bill black ; gape and inside of mouth orange-red ; legs and feet blackish or deep reddish black, the edges 

 of the tarsal scales whitish ; claws black. 



Plumage above and beneath black, with a blue and a green gloss or sheen, brilliant above and subdued on the lower 

 surface ; the head and tail have the blue lustre the strongest, and the back and wings green (in some speci- 

 mens there are one or two white feathers on the occiput) ; the lateral tail-feathers are tipped and crossed with 

 slanting bars of white, the penultimate has a series of white spots adjacent to the shaft, and all the rectrices a fine 

 whitish edge at the base ; the under tail-coverts, which are glossed more highly than the breast, are tipped and 

 banded with white, and there is a conspicuous white tuft on the outer thigh-coverts. 



Young. Iris red-brown ; legs paler than the adult. In the first jilumage the upper and lower surface have white 

 tips to the feathers ; the wing-coverts and rectrices are similarly tipped, and some of the underlying upper tail- 

 coverts are barred as well ; the head, back, and wings are less glossed than the adult, and the under surface is 

 brownish black; the tail is more barred, the penultimate being thus marked instead of spotted, and the next 

 feather has a series of median white marks. In this stage the tail is rounded, the penultimate being shorter than 

 the adjacent inlying feather. 



With age the spots disappear from portions of the upper surface, remaining longest on the upper tail-coverts, and some 



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