Genus ZANCLOSTOMUS. 

 Bill more slender than and not so deep as in the last genus, not so inflated near the base ; 

 the gape more festooned. N-ostrils ovoid, basal, and placed higher up than in Phoenicophaes. Eye 

 surrounded by nude skin. Wings with the 4th and 5th quills subequal and longest. Tail, legs, 

 and feet much as in the last. Shafts of the throat-feathers rigid. 



ZANCLOSTOMUS VIPJDIROSTKIS. 



(THE GREEN-BILLED MALKOHA.) 



Zanclostomm viridirostris, Jerd. Cat. B. S. India, Madr. Journ. 18-10, xi. p. 223, et 111. Ind. 



Orn. i. pi. 3 ; Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1845, p. 200 ; id. Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 76. no. 375 



(1849); Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av. p. 99 (1850); Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 129(1852) ; 



Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 453 ; Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. 



E. I. Co. ii. p. 690 (1856); Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 346 (1862); Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 



1872, p. 432 ; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 16, et 1875, p. 284 ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1876, p. 45S ; 



Fairbank, ibid. 1877, p. 397. 

 Phoenicophaus jerdoni, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1842, p. 1095. 

 Rhqpodytes viridirostris, Cab. et Heine, Mus. Hein. pt. iv. p. 03 (1802). 

 The Small Green-billed Malkoha, Jerdon, B. of India. 

 Kappra-popya, Hind. ; Wamana Ink}, lit. " Dwarf Crow," Telngu. 

 Mal-Jcoendetta, Sinhalese ; also Ilandi-koota (apiul Daniell) ; Koosil, Ceylon. Tamils (Layard). 



Adult mill and female. Length 15*0 to 15*75 inches; wing 5-1 to 5-4 ; tail 8-4 to 9*3 ; tarsus 1-3 to 1-35 ; outer 

 anterior toe 0'9, its claw (straight) 0-3 ; bill to gape 1*2 to 1-4. 



Iris deep brown ; bill pale leaf-green; orbital skin in front of eye cobalt-blue, paling behind into pale bluish : legs and 

 feet dusky green or greenish blue. 



Aliuve greenish grey, overcome with a strong green gloss from the hind neck down to the rump; lores, at the base of 

 the bill, and round the orbital region shading into blackish ; wings and tail deep metallic green, the tips of the 

 quills dusky ; terminal portion of tail-feathers white, deepest on the outer webs of all but the central pair, which 

 are eveuly tipped and with less white than the rest ; throat blackish, with greyish or pale fulvous striae, formed by 

 the double tips of the feathers being of that colour, and exceeding the black shaft; on the chest the feathers 

 gradually become fulvous-grey, and from that pure fulvous on the breast and abdomen ; flanks, thighs, and under 

 tail-coverts cinereous, the two latter washed with fulvous. 



Some examples, probably immature birds, have the under surface paler than the above, and the upper surface less 

 glossed with green ; the striae of the throat are less fulvous in some than in others. 



tin' furcate formation of the throat-feathers is most singular, and was, it appears, first pointed out by Blyth, with his 

 usual habit of minute and accurate observation. 



06s. On comparing Ceylonese with South- Indian examples, I find no appreciable difference ; an individual from Madras 

 measures as follows — wing 5-1 inches ; tail 9-2 ; tarsus l - 35 ; bill to gape 1"23. 



This species does not differ widely in plumage from the North-] ndian Z. tristis, which has not got the under parts rufous, 

 and has the throat whiter, with the nude skin round the eye crimson, iustead of blue. The latter species, however, is 

 much larger, the wing measuring 6J inches according to Jerdon, and it, is consequently styled the " Large Green- 

 billed Malkoha." 



Distribution. — This Cuckoo is widely diffused throughout the low country of Ceylon, being most numerous 



