1842.] Malayan species of Cuculidoc. 915 



Subgenus Pseudornis, Hodgson, J. A, S. VIII. 136.* (Drongo 

 Cuckoos.) Essential structure that of the other Cuckoos with feather- 

 ed tarsi, but the tail even or forked, except that the outermost feathers 

 are much shorter than the rest, and the two lateral halves of the tail 

 curve outwards towards the extremity, as in the Drongos. The size, 

 colouring, and general aspect, also, so closely resemble those of the 

 J)rongos{Edolius, subgenus Dicrurus), that an ordinary observer might 

 readily mistake one for the other, whence Mr. Hodgson's apt desig- 

 nation of false bird (Pseudornis), i. e. ' disguised Cuckoo/ Mr. Jerdon, 

 indeed, suggests, of one of them, — " Does this Drongo Cuckoo select 

 the nest of the Dicrurus to deposit its eggs in? If so, the foster- 

 parents would hardly be undeceived even when their progeny were 

 arrived at maturity." The sexes are similar, but whether the young 

 also resemble the adults I am unaware. These birds inhabit upland 

 forests. 



11. 0. (Pseudornis) dicruroides, Hodgson, J. A. S. VIII. 136 — 

 Madr. Journ. XL, 221. (Fork-tailed Drongo Cuckoo.) Length 

 ten inches to ten and a half, of wing five and a*quarter to five and a half 

 inches, and of penultimate tail-feathers five inches and a half to five 

 and three-quarters, the outermost an inch and a quarter less, and the 

 medial three-eighths of to half an inch less than the penultimate ; 

 bill to forehead (through the feathers) an inch, and to gape rather 

 more ; tarse three-quarters of an inch. Irides hoary-brown ; bill black, 

 the palate red; legs and feet blue. Colour black, with a changeable 

 blue and green gloss, brighter on the upper-parts : head subcrested : 

 the outer webs of some of the long tibial feathers white, as also 

 those on the tarse, and the under tibial feathers which are of downy 

 texture; a minute speck of this also near the tips of the outer 

 principal wing-coverts, but often obsolete ; the same occasionally on 

 the tips of the upper tail-coverts, and a series of such on the lower 

 tail-coverts ; the outermost tail-feather obliquely barred with white, 

 the bars in some contracted into spots, and finally an oblique streak 

 of white on the inner surface of the wing, and a round spot of it 

 on the inner web of the short outermost primary. 



♦Erroneously identified with Oxylophus, Swainson, by Mr. G. K. Gray, List 

 of the Genera of Birds, #c. 1st edit. p. 57. 



