CHALCITES HODGSONI. 



Emerald Cuckoo. 



The Spotted Curucui, Browne, Illustr. Zool. pi. 13, fig. 2 (1776). 



Trogon maculatus, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 404 (1788). 



Cuculus lucidus, Blyth, Journ. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, xi. p. 917 (1842, not of Gmelin), xii. p. 944 (1843). 



Chrysococcyx lucidus, Blyth, op. cit. xiii. p. 390 (1844, not of Gould). 



smaragdinus, Blyth, op. cit. xv. p. 53 (1846, not of Swainson). 



Chalcites xanthorhynchus, Hodgs. in Gray's Zool. Miscellany, p. 85 (1844, not of Horsfield). 

 Chrysococcyx xanthorhynchus, Gray, Cat. Mamm. & Birds of Nepal, Coll Hodgson, p. 120 (1846). 

 Cuculus malay anus, Gray & Mitchell, Gen. B. iii. pi. 117 (1847). 

 Chrysococcyx chalcites, Blyth, Cat. Birds Mus. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, p. 73 (1849). 



plagosus, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av. i. p. 106 (1850). 



Lampromorpha plagosa, Bonap. Consp. Volucr. Zygod. p. 7 (1854). 



Chrysococcyx hodgsoni, Moore in Horsf. & Moore, Cat. Birds Mus. E.I. Co. ii. p. 705 (1856) ; Jerdon, Birds of 



India, i. p. 338 (1862). 

 Cuculus smaragdinus, Gray, Hand-list of Birds, ii. p. 219 (1870). 

 Lamprococyx maculatus, Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 432. 

 Chrysococcyx maculatus, Blyth & Walden, Birds of Burmah, p. 80 (1875). 



The Golden or Emerald Cuckoos, as they are popularly called, are distributed over the greater part of the 

 tropical regions of the Old World. In Africa there are several species of brilliant coloration, while in India 

 and the adjacent countries to the eastward we have the subject of our present article; and in the Moluccas 

 and Australia there are numerous kinds of these metallic Cuckoos; the latter, however, are not of such 

 brilliant tints as the Indian and African species, and are generally placed by authors in a separate genus. 



The range of the Emerald Cuckoo is not very extensive in India. Dr. Jerdon speaks of it as rare in that 

 country ; but he says it is more common in the Burmese provinces, and has been procured rarely in Central 

 India. He obtained it on one occasion at Darjiling, at about 4000 feet elevation, but could obtain no 

 information respecting its habits, beyond the fact that the bird killed by him had been eating insects. 



The species was originally described from Ceylon ; but its occurrence in that island must be very rare, as 

 Mr. Holdsworth has never heard of a specimen, nor has Captain Legge recorded it. To the eastward it 

 ranges through Burmah to Siam — that is to say, if the bird described by me from the latter country as C. 

 schomburgki is really the same (cf. Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 1864, p. 73). I am aware that 

 Lord Tweeddale and some other ornithologists unite my C. schomburgki to C. hodgsoni without question ; 

 but on reexamining my type I still see certain differences which appear to me to distinguish the two birds 

 specifically. Thus C. schomburgki is a much smaller bird, and the green and white barring is continued 

 right up to the chin, whereas in the corresponding adult green plumage of C. hodgsoni the throat and chest 

 are uniform green like the back. The type of C. schomburgki, in fact, is green, like the adult bird figured 

 by me, but has the under surface barred in the same style as the hepatic plumage illustrated in the Plate, 

 though, of course, not agreeing in colour. Although for the present keeping the birds distinct, I am well 

 aware that the changes of plumage in these little Cuckoos are so varied that I may be proved to be wrong 

 some day or other. 



The following description is taken from Dr. Jerdon's 'Birds of India:'— 



"Above brilliant emerald-green with a rich golden gloss; beneath white with cross bars of shining green; 

 tail with the outer feathers barred with white externally; bill yellow, tipped dusky; irides red brown; feet 

 reddish cinereous. Length 6i to 7 inches ; wing 4i ; tail 3 ; bill at front f ; tarsus i. 



" Some specimens, smaller and more bronzed, are supposed to be females. 



" The young bird is dingy shining greenish, sometimes barred with rufous above, especially on the tail ; 

 beneath whitish, with dusky greenish bars throughout. One in the rufous phase has the upper parts rufous, 

 barred with rather dull green ; underpays white, banded throughout with dusky greenish ; bill blackish 

 vellow at the base ; another has the head and nape chestnut, the back coppery, the tail with rufous bands, 



and the underparts barred. 



The fioures in the Plate are life-sized, and represent an adult bird in full plumage, the second figure being 



that of a specimen in the hepatic stage. 



