244 Monograph of the Indian and [No. 135. 



other subgenera of restricted Cuculus : and if he had not so expressly 

 selected C. lugubris as the type of his Surniculus, it would have been 

 convenient to have reserved this name for the present form, retaining 

 Mr. Hodgson's Pseudomis for the Drongo Cuckoos; but such an 

 arrangement would not be sanctioned by Zoologists, and it remains, 

 therefore, to propose a distinctive appellation for the subgenus under 

 consideration, which accordingly may be termed Polyphasia, allusive 

 to the numerous variations of plumage assumed by the species. 



Subgenus Surniculus, Lesson, 1834; Pseudornis, Hodgson: the 

 Drongo Cuckoos. According to Mr. Hodgson, the sexes of C. di- 

 cruroides are similar ; and such I believe also to be the case with those 

 of C. lugubris, and that the Javanese specimen described by M. Lesson 

 as the female of the latter must therefore be the young. " Length 

 nine inches (French), of which the tail occupies five inches : bill black, 

 and tarsi brown. The feathers around the beak tinged with rufous ; 

 those of the upper-parts are brown, with a steel-blue reflection deeper 

 on the wings and tail; a number of small and round white specks, 

 encircled with black, are sprinkled over the head, shoulders, and 

 wings ; all the under-parts of the body are brown, tinged with rufous 

 on the fore-part of the neck, and sprinkled with small whitish round 

 spots ; the posterior tibial feathers incline to be whitish ; wings brown, 

 varied with white internally about the shoulder, and elsewhere on 

 their under-surface they are brown, having a white ray; tail brown 

 underneath, barred with whitish on its small feathers only." 



Since the publication of my Monograph of Eastern Cuculidce, I have 

 received a second Singapore specimen of C. lugubris, which resembles 

 that which I formerly described in its dimensions, and is merely some- 

 what brighter black, with no white specks whatever on its upper sur- 

 face, and very few (and those but faint and confined to the abdo- 

 men) below ; the exterior short pair of tail feathers are rather longer. 

 It is not improbably a male, while the other may be presumed to be a 

 female; and it may be added, that the conspicuous white occipital spot 

 of the other specimen does not occur. The same difference is ob- 

 servable in two very fine specimens of C. dicruroides with which 

 1 have also been kindly favoured ; and it is remarkable that these have 

 the tail no more furcate than in C. lugubris, while their dimensions 

 correspond with those of Mr. Hodgson's Nepalese examples. The 



