Birds of Celebes: Cuculidae. 
221 
have to do with the curious spine-like character of the shafts of its contour- 
feathers. This grass (“Kussu kussu” Chrysopogo7i aciculatus Fr.) grows taller than 
a man and is so sharp that great care must be used in passing through it or 
hands and face get badly cut. Similar considerations have led us to examine 
the outer webs of the primaries, in anticipation that a change might have been 
wrought by frequent brushing against the stems of the jungle-grass as the bird 
flew in and out amongst it; but there is nothing remarkable about them, unless it 
be that the outer webs of the longest primaries are narrowed rather suddenly in 
their terminal third (more so than in other Cuckoos before us), while the third, 
fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh — the longest — are all very much of a length, 
forming a remarkably blunt -tipped wing. The same condition obtains among 
other birds in other members of the subgenus Centrococcysc ( C. eurycercus. C. viridis), 
in the subgenus Cetitropus (C. seneyalensis), and — though less distinctly — in 
the subgenus Polip)hilns (P. phasianus); but not in Nesocentor (N. menehiki) and 
Pyrrhocentor (P. celebensis), in which the shafts of the contour-feathers are less 
spiny in character and suggestive of somewhat different habits of life. The 
interesting point is that in the former subgenera the narrowest part of the outer 
web of the longest quills is usually some distance from the tip, whereas just 
before the tip the web becomes a shade broader again. The case should be 
considered in connection with the racket-feathers of Prioniturus. 
GENUS PYRRHOCENTOR Cab. Heine. 
These Coucals may be distinguished by their having the culmen longer 
than the head, the hind toe and claw shorter than the middle and 
reversed fourth toe and claws, the wing very blunt and round, the pri- 
maries (6*’" to 8*^ longest) very little longer than the secondaries, the tail half 
as long again as the wing, the contour-feathers of the head, neck, and breast 
with stiffened shafts, not dense and close, but on the other hand loose and 
open. The young are not known, immature birds hardly differ from the adults. 
About 5 species are known, inhabiting the Philippines, Celebes and Kangean. 
* 72. PYRRHOCENTOR CELEBENSIS (Q. G.). 
Brown Coucal. 
iwo geographical races of this highly local species have been distinguished; 
they are : 
-T 1. The typical Pyrrhocentor celebensis. 
a. Centropus celebensis (I) Quoy & Gaim., Yoy. Astrol. Zool. I, 1830, 230; Atlas Aves 
1833, pi. 20; (2) Gray, Gen. B. II, 1846, 455; (3) Bp., Consp. 1850, I, 108; id., 
Oonsp. Vol. Zygod. 1854, 5; (4) Finsch, New Guinea 1865, 160; (5) Brligg., Abh. 
Yer. Bremen 1876, Y, 60; (6) Shelley, Gat. B. XIX, 1891, 365, pt.; (7) Hartert, 
Kat. Senkenb. Mus. 1891, 150. ' 
