106 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
brown ; remainder of lower plumage pale buff^ barred with black ; the bars 
on the under tail-coverts nearly obsolete. 
" In another stage the whole upper plumage^ wings and tail are barred 
with black and deep rufous. 
Feet^ iris and gape bright yellow ; the upper mandible and the tip of 
the lower mandible horny green ; the rest of the lower mandible yellowish 
horny. [Davison.) 
Length 12 inches^ tail Q, wing 6*8^ tarsus '7, bill from gape 1*1. The 
female appears to be slightly smaller. 
I have described above the only bird I procured in Pegu. It was shot 
in October, and agrees well with other birds from India and Siberia, 
except that the Pegu bird has a good deal of rufous on the breast. This 
species may always be distinguished from C. micropterus by the colour of 
its upper plumage, which is a clear bluish ashy, whereas in C. micropterus 
the upper plumage is brown with no bluish tinge. C. striatus, as a rule, 
also has a smaller bill ; but this is not a reliable character. From 
C. canorus it may be always separated by the subterminal dark bar on 
the tail. 
The Asiatic Cuckoo is somewhat rare in Pegu, for I procured only one 
specimen in that Division, and I never heard its note. Mr. Davison states 
that it is apparently not rare in Tenasserim. Both to Pegu and Tenas- 
serim it is probably only a winter visitor. 
It occurs, according to season, over the greater portion of Asia, 
extending, according to Mr. Blyth, even to North Australia. Mr. 
Seebohm procured it in Siberia, and his specimens are identical with 
Indian examples. 
This Cuckoo has a very peculiar note, which appears to resemble the 
cry of the Hoopoe, being a guttural and hollow-sounding hoo. It lays 
in the Himalayas during June, and deposits its eggs very frequently in the 
nest of Trochalopterum lineatum. 
The Cuckoos of South-eastern Asia have received a vast number of 
names, and it would require many months' labour and the examination of 
all the specimens contained in the European museums to evolve order from 
this confused mass of synonyms. 
C hyperythrus is a very distinct and beautiful species, which inhabits 
the Philippines and is also said to occur in China. The whole upper 
plumage, chin and cheeks in the adult are dark ashy, almost black, and 
the whole breast and abdomen are a deep rufous unstreaked and unbarred. 
