CUCULI 



273 



phaga there are only eight. The feather tracts are somewhat 

 diverse in their disposition. The pterylosis of the European 

 cuckoo {Cuculus canorus) has been described by Nitzsch in 

 his ' Pterylography.' The feathering on the throat com- 

 pletely occupies the intermandibular space. The ventral 

 pteryla is divided upon the neck into its two halves, which 

 are not again divided ; each passes backwards, gradually 



Fig. 134. — Ptekylosis or Eudynarms orientalis. 

 (Apteb Beddabe.) 



Ventbal View. 



diminishing in extent, until it ends in a single row of feathers 

 in the neighbourhood of the cloaca. Over the sternum this 

 pectoral tract is very wide ; later its three rows of feathers 

 become separated by a slight interval, two on one side and 

 one on the other, which, however, reunite before ending at 

 the cloaca. The spinal tract is narrow in the neck region. 

 It bifurcates on the shoulder to enclose a lanceolate space. 



T . 



