274 cuckow. 



14 —BLUE CUCKOW. 



Cuculus coeruleus, Ind. Orn. i. 217. Lin. i. 171. Gm. Lin. i. 418. 



— Madagascariensis coeruleus, Bris. iv. 156. t. 13. f. 1. Id. Svo. ii. 85. 



Gerin. t. 78. 

 Polophilus coeruleus, Blue Cuckow, Gen. Zool. ix. p. 56. 

 Taitsou, Coucou bleu de Madagascar, Buf. vi. 391. t. 18. PI. enl. 295. 2. 

 Le Coua, Taitsoue, Male, Levail. Afr.v. 69. pi. 218. 

 Blue Cuckow, Gen. Syn. ii. 531. 



SIZE of our Cuckow, but of a more elegant make ; length 

 seventeen inches, Bill one inch and a quarter, black ; round the 

 eyes naked ; irides fine red ; plumage wholly fine blue, but the quills 

 are glossed with green and violet, in different lights ; tail the length 

 of the body, blue, with a violet gloss ; the two middle feathers exceed 

 the others but very little ; legs black. 



The female differs in being rather smaller, and the colours less 

 vivid. — The young, before the first moult, are blue green, without 

 any gloss of violet. 



Inhabits Madagascar; found also in the great forests of the 

 Caffre Country, in the interior of the Cape of Good Hope ; chiefly 

 seen on the tops of large trees ; the male has a kind of cooing note, 

 not unlike Courrr, repeated, by which it is often discovered ; feeds 

 on fruits. Although M. Levaillant has not positively seen them in 

 the act of hatching their eggs, yet he is certain they do, from that 

 part of the belly, usually bare in sitting birds, being so in this 

 Species. 



15.— METALLIC CUCKOW. 



LENGTH eleven inches. Bill and irides orange; top of the 

 head, back, wings, and tail deep purplish black, with a metallic 



