Birds of Celebes: Cuculidae. 
207 
Measurements. 
Wing 
Tail 
Tarsus 
Bill from 
nostril 
a. (0 1848) ad. [ 0 ^] Manado, March 1871 
210 
210 
30 
18.5 
h. (C 3581) ad. [$] N. Celebes, 1877 
186 
192 
32 
18.5 
Distribution. Celebes — Minahassa (Forsten h Meyer 5, Fischer 11 etc.]] Gorontalo 
(Forsten b 1, Meyer 15); Talissi Island (Griiillem. 15); Banka, Leinbeh and Mante- 
bage Islands (Nat. Coll.); Togian Islands (Meyer 15); Macassar (Wallace 20]] West 
Celebes (Doherty 55); E. Celebes, and Peling (Nat. Coll,); Snla Islands (Allen al^ 20]. 
Briiggemann (11) records a specimen as having come from Sangi, but this 
would appear to be a mistake, since that island has a race of Eiidyiiamis of its own, 
E. mindanensis sangirensis W. Bias. 
In the foregoing sketch of the several stages of dress passed through by 
this Cuckoo a conclusion has been arrived at identical vrith that of Capt. 
Shelley, but differing radically from those of Lord Walden, Briiggemann, 
Dr. Guillemard, and Prof. W. Blasius. According to Shelley the adnlt 
male “is all over blue-black, the adult female above chestnut evenly barred with 
olive-black, . . . under parts (except chin and upper throat) buff, with numerous 
narrow wavy black bars” ; Briiggemann, on the other hand, states that the sexes 
are alike both in size and colour, and what Shelley describes as the adult female- 
is held by him, Walden, Blasius and Guillemard to be the first stage of 
immature dress. That these authorities are in error is shown by the nestling 
obtained by the Drs. Sarasin, as also, by the specimen described by us as 
c [2] with earliest apj)earances of adult plumage, to which attention may 
be drawn. Here the new and growing feathers are barred with black and 
rufous brown, while the old worn feathers, which were about to be cast off, 
are of that more uniform brown appearance belonging to the fledgeling, but 
supposed by these authors to belong to a more advanced stage. As a great 
series before us in almost every phase of dress show, the young of both sexes 
are at first apparently just alike in coloration, but commence to deviate in the 
second stage, becoming more and more different as they approach maturity. 
Dissimilarity of the sexes is one of the characteristics of the genus Eudynamis.^ 
elsewhere, as Indian ornithologists well know. 
There is a remarkably close resemblance between the old female of this 
Celebesian Cuckoo and the young of the wide-spread Centrococcyx hengalensis 
also a species occurring in Celebes. The young dress of E. melanorhyncha 
recalls the uniform coloration of the upper snrface of Coccystes coromandus. 
The only specimen as yet known from the Snla Islands is a male, appa- 
rently partially affected by albinism, which was obtained by Air. Wallace’s 
assistant, Allen, in Snla Besi or Snla Alangoli, and was named as distinct on 
account of its smaller size. This distinction is not found to hold good by 
Capt. Shelley, and until more specimens for comparison are forthcoming it 
should be regarded as identical with E. melanorhyncha. Shelley’s opinion is 
confirmed by an example from Peling, resembling the birds of the mainland. 
