COCCYSTES COKOMANDUS. 



(THE RED-WINGED CRESTED CUCKOO.) 



Cumins coromandus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 171. no. 20 (1766) ; Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 216 (1790). 



Cuculus collaris, Vieillot, N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. viii. p. 229 (1816). 



Oxylophus coromandus, Jerd. Cat. B. S. Ind., Madr. Journ. 1840, xi. p. 272 ; Blyth, J. A. S. B. 



1842, p. 920 ; id. Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 74. no. 363 (1849); Kelaart, Prodromus, 



Cat. p. 128 (1852); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 451. 

 Coccystes coromandus, Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. ii. p. 693 (1856) ; Jerdon, B. 



of Ind. i. p. 341 (1862) ; Cab. et Heine, Mus. Hein. iv. p. 45 (1862) ; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 



1872, p. 432 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs (Rough Draft), p. 138 (1873) ; id. Stray Feath. 



1875, p. 82; David & Oustalet, Ois. de la Chine, p. 61 (1877). 

 Coucou huppe de Coromandel, Buffon, PI. Enl. p. 274 ; Coromandel Cuckoo of some ; The 



Collared Crested Cuckoo, Kelaart. 

 Yerra gola Eohila, Telugu ; Tseben, Lepchas (Jerdon). 

 Konde-koha, lit. " Crested Cuckoo," Sinhalese. 



Adult male. Length 15 - inches ; wing 6-3 ; tail 9 - 3 ; tarsus 0-9 ; outer anterior toe 095, claw (straight) 035 ; bill to 

 gape 1'3. 



Adult female. Length 16 inches ; wing 6-7 ; tail 9 - 7 ; bill to gape 1'4. 



Iris hazel-brown ; bill black, inside of mouth and nostrils coral-red ; legs and feet bluish slate, claws black. 



Above, the head, including the lores/upper part of cheeks aud ear-coverts, the hind neck, back, scapulars, tertials, and 

 least wing-coverts black, with a bronze-green lustre on the upper parts, and a deep blue-green gloss on the upper 

 tail-coverts and tail ; the head is less glossed than the back and crest, which latter is If inch in length, and 

 stands out boldly from the nape ; the green of the tertials is paler or more overcast with a brownish lustre than 

 other parts : a conspicuous collar of white across the hind neck ; quills, greater and median wing-coverts rich 

 chestnut, the primaries dusky towards the tips ; tips of rectrices fulvous-white, the centre pair only edged with it ; 

 beneath, the throat, fore neck, and sides are yellowish ferruginous, paling into white on the breast and upper part 

 of belly, the abdomen, vent, and thigh-coverts becoming dusky grey ; under tail-coverts green-black, edged with 

 fulvous-white, some of the feathers having pale centres. 



Female. Differs slightly : somewhat less deep in hue above ; tips of rectrices whiter ; throat not so rich, the colour 

 not extending to the chest, and the lower part of breast not so pure, the grey of the abdomen pervading it 

 somewhat. 



Young. In Hodgson's drawing of the " young, hardly fledged," the bill and eyelid are pale red ; the iris is pale brown, 



and the legs and feet reddish fleshy. 

 Head, upper surface, and tail brown, the feathers of the head, back, rump, and scapulars with broad fulvous margins ; 



the quills and wing-coverts more deeply margined with the same ; tail-feathers edged outwardly and tipped with 



pale rufous ; ear-coverts and entire under surface white. 



The bird of the year has the green portions of the upper surface, including the upper tail-coverts, tipped and edged 

 towards the extremities of the feathers with rufous, and the ground-colour brownish metallic green ; throat whitish, 

 washed with yellowish rufous ; under tail-coverts and abdomen tipped with ferruginous. 



Distribution. — The Red-winged Crested Cuckoo, one of the handsomest of its tribe in Ceylon, is a 

 migratory bird to the island, arriving about October and departing again in April. Whether or not it leaves 

 the extreme north of the island altogether, I have been unable to ascertain with certainty ; but there is no 

 question about its being a visitor to the southern parts of the west coast, for in October 1876, while I was at 



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