104 



SACRED CUCKOW. 

 (Cuculus honoratus.) 



C. cauda cuneiformi ; corpore nigricante albo maculato ; subtus 



alho cinereoque Jasciato. 

 Cuckow, with a wedge-shaped tail, body blackish spotted with 



white, beneath barred with white, and cinereous. 

 Cuculus honoratus. Lin. Syst. Nat. 1. l6Q. 7. — Gmel. Syst. 



Nat. 1. 413. — Lath. Ind. Orn. 1. 214. 21. 

 Cuculus Malabaricus nsevius. Bris. 4. 136. 15. t.ll. k.f. 2. 

 Cuil. Buff. Hist. Nat. Ois. 6. 375. 

 Coucou tachete de Malabar. Buff. PI. Enl. 2Q4. 

 Sacred Cuckow. Lath. Syn. 2. 526. 20. 



Length eleven inches and a half: prevailing 

 colour blackish-ash on the upper parts, marked 

 with two spots of white on each feather ; beneath 

 white, spotted transversely with ash -colour: quill- 

 feathers cinereous, transversely spotted with white : 

 tail five inches and a half long, of the same colour 

 as the quills, and very much wedge-shaped, the 

 outer feathers being only three inches long : legs 

 pale ash ; claws the same. 



This species, which is found at Malabar, is held 

 sacred by the natives, which superstition may have 

 arisen from its feeding on reptiles of the more 

 noxious kind and insects, which it is said to do by 

 many authors, 



