cuckow. 271 



obliquely ; irides orange ; space round the eyes, and a little way 

 behind them bare, wrinkled, and blue; head, and upper parts of the 

 body, elegant ash-colour, inclining to green ; feathers of the head 

 long, forming a crest ; throat and neck before cinereous ; lower part 

 of the latter, and breast vinaceous ; belly, sides, and under tail 

 coverts rufous white ; thighs white, barred with light ash ; quills pale 

 green, glossed with blue and violet, beneath cinereous ; tail as the 

 quills, the two middle feathers the longest, the side ones tipped with 

 white; legs black. 



The female is rather smaller, and the colours less bright. 



Inhabits Madagascar, and called Coua. Buffon says, that the 

 neck is short ; it carries the tail erect ; and the flesh good to eat ; 

 frequents the woods about Fort Dauphin. M. Levaillant adds, that 

 it is also found in some parts of India, and at Senegal, in Africa ; 

 that the voice is loud, by no means plaintive, and hatches its own 

 young in the holes of trees. I find a similar one among the drawings 

 of Mr. Daniell, found at Ceylon, and there called Haudee-Kootah. 



12 —AFRICAN CUCKOW. 



Cuculus Afer, Ind. Orn.i. 217. Gm.Lin.i. 418. Zool. Misc. pi. 31 . 



Madagascariensis major, Bris. iv. 160. t. 15. f. 1. Id. 8vo. ii. p. 86. 



Bucco Africanus, African Barbet, Gen. Zool. ix. p. 25. 



Le Vouroug-driou, Levail. Afr. v. 94- pi. 226. Bvf. vi. 395. 



Grand Coucou Male de Madagascar, PI. enl. 587. 



Courol, Tern. Man. Ed. ii. Anal. p. lxxiv. 



African Cuckow, Gen. St/n. ii. 532. 



THIS is a stout bird, the size of a large Pigeon ; length fifteen 

 inches ; bill two inches long, blackish, and more strait than usual 

 in this genus ; the head, which is large, the throat, and neck, 

 cinereous ; crown blackish, glossed with green and copper ; from 



