(49) MACROPYGIA RUFIPENNIS Blyth. 



ANDAMAN CUCKOO-DOVE. 

 (Plate 25.) 



Macropygia rufipennis Blyth, J.A.S.B., XV p. 371 (1846) ; id., Cat. 

 B.M.A.S.B., p. 234, no. 1422 ; Ball, J.A.S.B., XXXIX p. 32 ; id. ib., 

 XLI p. 287 ; id., Str. Peath., I p. 80 ; Hume, ib., U p. 266 ; id. ib., 

 VIII p. 110 ; id., Cat. no. 721, bis ; Salvadori, Cat. B.M., XXI p. 344 ; 

 Blanf., Avi. Brit. I., IV p. 50; Sharpe, Hand-List, I p. 73 ; Butler, 

 J.B.N.H.S., XII p. 690 ; Osmaston, ib., XVII p. 489. 



Vernacular Names. None recorded. 



Description. — Adult male. Whole head and hind-neck chestnut-purple, 

 chin and throat very pale rufous-white, upper-back dark brown, the feathers 

 minutely stippled with pale rufous ; in some specimens, not quite adult, these 

 frecklings develop into small bars ; the remainder of the upper-parts dark 

 brown, becoming more chestnut on the upper tail-coverts. Central rectrices 

 chestnut-brown, the outermost bright chestnut with an oblique subterminal 

 dusky band; lesser wing-coverts and scapulars brown, more or less edged 

 with chestnut, median wing-coverts still more distinctly edged with chestnut ; 

 greater wing-coverts and quills dark brown, the primaries more or less 

 cinnamon on the inner webs, and innermost secondaries rufescent-brown on 

 the inner webs. Whole of the lower surface light rufous-brown, darkest 

 on the breast, and palest on the abdomen, barred throughout with narrow 

 wavy lines of black ; under tail-coverts, under aspect of the wings, and 

 axiUaries ferruginous-red ; under aspect of tail pale grey-brown, the chestnut 

 on the upper surface of the tail feathers showing through strongly and the 

 dark bar also visible, but to a less extent. 



Colours of soft parts. " Legs dull pinkish -red in front, bright but pale 

 pink behind, soles whitish, claws homy ; bill dull homy-red, tinged near gape 

 with pink ; irides violet " (Davidson). 



Weight, according to Davison, from 8 to 10 oz. 



" Iris light blue, encircled with a ring of carmine ; orbital ring leaden- 

 blue ; bill and legs purpUsh-pink " (Wardlaw Ramsay). 



Measurements. " Total length about 15.5 in. ; wing 7.3 to 7.7 in. ; 

 tail 8.0 in. ; bill 0.9 in. ; tarsus 1.0 in." (Salvadori). 



The series in the British Museum gives a wing-length from 7.1 in. 

 ( = 180.3 mm.) to 7.6 in. ( = 193 mm.) ; bill at front about 0.5 in. ( = 12.7 mm.) 

 and from gape 0.9 in. ( = 22 mm.). 



Richmond gives the total length as 394 to 425.5 mm. 



Adult female. General colour like that of the male, but the stipplings 

 on the back are very much more pronounced, and nearly always developed 

 into small bars, which, in all but very old birds, are continued to some extent 

 on the lower-back. In practically every bird of this sex a certain amount of 

 black mottling shows through the chestnut feathers of the head. The lower 



