CUCULUS HYPERYTHRUS, Gould. 



Rufous-bellied Cuckoo. 



Cuculus hyperythrus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc. April 22, 1856. 



China has hitherto been, as it were, a sealed country to the scientific explorer, consequently all the natural 

 productions of that part of the world have been regarded with especial interest. That its feathered 

 inhabitants partake of a triple character is certain ; in the first place, it possesses several species of birds 

 which are precisely identical with some of those of the British Islands ; in the next, it is tenanted by several 

 additional species of the same forms ; and in the third, by forms which are peculiarly its own : the 

 present species, which is a true Cuculus, pertains to the second of these divisions. I have never seen 

 examples from any other country ; neither, so far as I am aware, has it ever before received a specific 

 appellation ; for I have looked in vain for a description of it in every work to which I could obtain 

 access, particularly in the valuable monograph of the genus lately published by Mr. Blyth. In size it 

 is rather less than the Common Cuckoo of Europe, and it is altogether less elegant in its general contour. 

 The rufous colouring of the breast and under surface, and the black marks on the throat and cheeks, 

 are characters seldom seen among the CucuUdcs, and by which it may at once be distinguished. 



A fine specimen of this bird, now at the British Museum, but which was formerly in my possession, was 

 shot at Shanghai, and this, I regret to say, is all I know respecting it. 



Crown of the head, all the upper surface and wings dark slate-grey ; spurious wings white ; lores, ear- 

 coverts, moustache and spot on the chin black ; throat white, with a fine line of brown down the shaft of each 

 feather ; under surface dull rusty red ; tail grey, crossed by two narrow irregular bands of black bordered 

 with brown, and by a very broad band of black near the extremity, the tip being reddish brown ; upper 

 mandible black ; lower mandible and feet yellow. 



Total length, \\\ inches ; bill, H 5 wing, 8 ; tail, 6^. 



The figures are of the natural size. 



