54 VISCOUNT WALDEN ON THE BIEDS OP CELEBES. 



In India there are two species : 1, C. passerinus ( Vahl), without any rufous in the 

 adult plumage ; 2, C. tenuirostris (Gray, apud Jerdon), with a rufous belly. Both pass 

 through an hepatic phase. C. passerinus (Vahl) chiefly inhabits western and south- 

 western India and Ceylon; C. tenuirostris, Gray, ap. Jerdon, frequents Bengal and 

 the countries to the eastward, including Burma. In Bengal the two species are said to 

 meet and interbreed. C. passerinus (Vahl) has no representative ; but G. tenuirostris, 

 Gray, ap. Jerdon, is represented in the Malay peninsula by C. threnodes, Cab. ; in 

 Borneo by C. borneensis, Bp. ; in the Philippines by C. merulinus (Scopoli) verus ; and 

 in Java by Cuculus flavus, Gm., apud Horsf., S. Muller, &c, =Cacomantis merulinus, 

 Scop., ap. Cab., and Polyphasia merulina, Scop., ap. Horsf. & Moore. The Javan bird, 

 in the hepatic stage, is probably the G. lanceolatus, S. Muller. When fully adult it 

 has the head, nape, throat, and breast pale ashy ; the remaining lower parts fulvous, 

 more or less inclining to rufous ; the caudal bands are white ; and the quills uni- 

 colorous. In the young and in the transition stage these bands, which are broad, 

 equidistant, and unbroken, are rufous, and the quills are either all or partly rufous- 

 banded. This description will apply more or less to all the races above alluded to. 



C. sepulchralis, S. Muller, is the title of a third very distinct species, which inhabits 

 Java. "When adult it may be at once recognized from C. merulinus of Java by its 

 longer bill, and from all the races of that species by its much longer wings and tail, 

 by the chin, cheeks, and ear-coverts only being pale ashy, the head dark grey, the 

 upper surface bronze-green, and by the whole under surface, the chin excepted, being 

 ruddy fulvous. The white markings on the rectrices are fewer, smaller, and chiefly 

 consist of triangular edge-spots, and not of bands running right through. In transition 

 plumage this is in all probability the C.pyrogaster, Drapiez. C. sepulchralis, S. Muller, 

 belongs to the group which includes C. flabelliformis, Lath., C. dumetorum, Gould, and 

 C. insperatus, Gould, from Australia, also several races of small Cuckoos of the Austro- 

 Malayan archipelago, as C. assimilis, G. R. Gray, Aru Islands, C. infaustus, Cabanis, 

 Mysol, and some undetermined species in Goram, Batchian, Morty, and Salawati, 

 likewise G. simus, Peale, Feejee Islands, C. castaneiventris, Gould, Cape York, and C. 

 bronzinus, G. E. Gray, in New Caledonia. No member of this group has been identified 

 as inhabiting Continental Asia ; yet the Bengal specimen, stated by Dr. Jerdon (B. of 

 Ind. i. p. 335) to have the rufous extending to the chin, may belong to it. 



A fourth group of Plaintive Cuckoos is represented by C. tymbonomus, S. Muller, 

 from Timor ; to it belongs the C. pallidus (Lath.) of Australia, and an undetermined 

 species from Waigiou. In C. tymbonomus the upper surface is pale olive-brown, 

 inclining to ashy on the head and rump; the under surface is paler and more 

 cinereous ; under tail-coverts tawny, or pallid rufous ; middle pair of rectrices imma- 

 culate, but broadly tipped with brown ; the remainder tipped with white, and partially 

 toothed on the inner webs with white. This species and its allies also pass through a 

 rufous phase. 



