242 Monograph of the Indian and [No. 135. 



Others from the various localities before cited " offer, upon examin- 

 ation, altogether the same characters, though we are compelled to 

 recognise varieties of race, both according to size and the disposition 

 of the colours of the plumage." 



The Australian race (C. cineraceus, Vigors and Horsfield, Lin. 

 Trans. XV, 298; Barred-tailed Cuckoo of Latham, Gen. Hist. 1 1 J, 

 310;), if the figure of it in Messrs. Jardine and Selby's Illustrations 

 of Ornithology (pi. LXVII) be correctly coloured, would seem to have 

 the under-parts much deeper rufous than I have ever seen in Indian spe- 

 cimens, and the tail-feathers more broadly and conspicuously margined 

 laterally with white. The following description is attached : — " The 

 length of most specimens seems to be from nine to eleven inches. 

 The upper-part of the plumage is a dull bluish-grey, on the wings 

 tinged with brown, upon the tail nearly black ; the throat is pale 

 blue-grey, the rest of the under-parts reddish ochre-yellow, palest on 

 the belly and vent; the inner webs of the quills are marked with 

 white, which forms a diagonal bar across the under surface ; the tail, 

 with the exception of the centre- feathers, is deeply dentated with 

 narrow white markings, which gives it nearly a barred appearance 

 when expanded. The feet and legs appear to have been yellow. 

 The females are generally duller in their colourings, and have the un- 

 der-parts transversely barred with dull bluish-black. The young of 

 the first year are dull umbre brown, with transverse darker markings." 



The Indian bird appears to be typically dark grey without any 

 rufous, at least the old male, and according to Mr. Jerdon's obser- 

 vation cited, some perhaps of the old females ; but the ordinary dress 

 of the adult female is, I suspect, as I have described it, namely, a 

 garb corresponding to that so generally assumed by C. poliocephalus 

 ( Himalayanus of Vigors and Gould), and constituting the hepaticus 

 variety of C. canorus: upon the first moult, the males appear gene- 

 rally to have the lower parts from the breast rufous, but rarely the 

 upper part of the breast and fore-neck (as in the figure cited of the 

 Australian C. cineraceus), indeed I have only seen one specimen thus 

 characterized, and in this the colours of the entire under-parts are 

 unusually dull and have some faint cross-striae, indicative probably of a 

 weakly individual. These states of plumage, together with the first 

 or nestling dress, I have before minutely described. 



