900 A Monograph of the Indian and [No. 130. 



or large) and By chart Cuckoo, and the young — Sokagu Cuckoo, of 

 Latham, Gen. Hist, III., 264-5 ; C. Lathami, Hardwicke and Gray ; 

 C. radiatus (?), Gmelin, or le Coucou brun etjaune a ventre raye, Buf- 

 fon, Hist. Nat, Ois., VII., 379.* (Whistling Cuckoo.) Length thir- 

 teen inches and a half, by twenty-two inches in extent ; wing from bend 

 seven inches, and tail six inches and three quarters, its outermost fea- 

 thers an inch and a half shorter than the middle ones : bill an inch and 

 one-sixteenth to forehead (through the feathers), and an inch and 

 a quarter to gape; tarse three quarters of an inch. Colour of the 

 upper-parts uniform ash-grey, the winglet and coverts of the primaries 

 darker: fore-neck and breast pale rufous, each feather light-grey in 

 the centre : belly and flanks white, barred with adjoining lines of grey 

 and rufous ; the white hardly visible anteriorly, from the overlapping 

 of the feathers : thighs, vent, and lower tail-coverts, pure white ; the 

 first a little barred : throat grey, and some white at the base of the 

 bill and sides of the throat: tail grey, tipped with faint rufous and 

 finally whitish; having a broad dusky subterminal band, and five 

 other narrow undulating zigzag bands (one near the base), composed 

 of a dusky bar and then a whitish one adjoining, with some traces of 

 rufous: quills barred with white on their inner webs for the basal 

 two-thirds or three-fourths of their length : bill dusky, the lower man- 

 dible, except at its extreme tip, and the sides of the base of the upper 



* Since writing the above, I have seen Sonnerat's figure of his Coucou d ventre 

 raye de VIsle Panay, and am less inclined to identify it with C. fugax than I was 

 previously. It is described to be nearly as large as the European species, having an 

 even tail : " the upper part of the hsad of a blackish-grey ; throat and sides of the head 

 vinaceous (couleur de lie de vin) ; breast dull orpiment-yellow, the belly faint yellow, 

 and loth barred with black ; back and wings dull brown-black ; the tail composed 

 of feathers of even length, tipped with white, and marked with series of white round 

 spots [upon the shafts], so arranged as to form [interrupted] bars : bill black ; the 

 iridespale orange; and feet reddish." Dr. Buchanan Hamilton referred the C. fugax 

 to this species ; and it appears that the latter has never been verified as distinct, to 

 judge from every succeeding writer having copied from his predecessors. 



One of the specimens referred by Latham to his Sokagu is described as having " the 

 under-parts of the body to the thighs pale slate-colour," while the description of the 

 back suits very well the young of C. fugax : another has ?« the body beneath pale 

 ash-colour, marked with roundish black spots on the sides of the neck aiflMody" ; and 

 a third has " all the under-parts dusky-white, marked with longitudinal streaks of 

 pale brown," which agrees with all the young of C. fugax which I have seen no 

 inconsiderable number. It remains for future observers to substantiate these various 

 indications, which however, mostly resting on drawings of more or less questionable 

 fidelity, their value is thereby much deteriorated. 





