cuckow. 285 



28 —INDIAN BLACK CUCKOW. 



Cuculus niger, Lin.'u 170. Gin. Lin.i. 415. Klein. Av. p. 31. Ind. Om. 211. 10. y. 



Cuculus Bengalensis niger, Bro.iv. 141. Id. Svo.ii. 80. Gerin.t.72. 



Coukeel, Buf. vi. 3S4. 3. -Em. Philos. p. 68. 



Indian black Cuckow, Gen. Syn. ii. 519. B. Edw. pi. 58. 



SIZE of a Blackbird ; length nine inches Bill short, stout, and 

 a trifle bent, colour orange ; irides red ; the whole bird black, glossed 

 with green and violet ; tail cuneiform, four inches and a half long ; 

 leu's brownish . 



The female has a pale bill ; is brown above, spotted with white I 

 head striped white and brown ; over the eye a white streak ; under 

 parts white, with irregular brown spots ; thigh feathers long, barred 

 with brown ; tail cuneiform, brown, crossed with fourteen or fifteen 

 whitish bars, the tip fringed with white ; the wings, when closed, 

 reach to about the middle of it ; legs pale blue. 



Inhabits India, and simply called Coel. 



29 —ASIATIC BLACK CUCKOW. 



Cuculus Indicus, Ind. Orn.i. 211. Gen. Zool.ix. p. 88. 

 Eastern Black Cuckow, Gen. Syn. Sup. 99. 



LENGTH sixteen inches. Bill strong, whitish ; plumage black ; 

 across the wings three narrow white bars ; near the end of the tail 

 the same ; legs pale blue. 



Inhabits India, by the name of Coweel ; it appears that two or 

 three go there by the name of Cuil or Coweel ; one as large as a Jay, 

 and all frequent the woods; for the most part fly in small flocks, 

 and feed on insects ; are held in veneration by the Mahometans, but 

 by others valued for the flesh, which is accounted delicate, a single 

 bird being sold to the lovers of good eating for 24 livres ; said to sing 

 as well as a Nightingale. 



