CUCULUS MICROPTERUS. 
(THE INDIAN CUCKOO.) 
Cuculus micropterus , Gould, P. Z. S. 1837, p. 137; Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1842, xi. p. 902; 
Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 129 (1852) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. 
p. 452 ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 326 (1862) ; Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 395 ; 
Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 430; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 16 ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1875, 
p. 79. 
Cuculus striatus, Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 70 (1849); Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. 
Mus. E. I. Co. ii. p. 703 (1856); Cab. et Heine, Mus. Hein. iv. p. 37 (1862). 
Cuculus affinis (A. Hay), Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1846, xv. p. 18. 
Great-billed Cuckoo, Blyth ; Ashy Mountain Cuckoo , Kelaart. 
Bou-kotako , Bengalese; Takpo-pho, Lepchas. 
Adult male (Ceylon). Length 12-2 inches; wing 7*75 ; tail 5-8; tarsus 0*7 ; outer anterior toe 0-8; bill to 
gape l - 24. 
An example from Sumatra measures — wing 8-2 inches ; tail 6-8 ; bill to gape 1-11. A male from Pegu — length 
13-3 ; expanse 23-5 ; wing 8*25 ; bill from gape 1*35 : a female — length 12*4 ; wing 7'6 ; bill from gape 1-3. 
( Oates.) 
Iris brown ; bill dark horn at base of upper mandible, the tip blackish ; under mandible fleshy, with a dark tip ; gape 
and orbital skin yellow; legs and feet ochre-yellow, claws dusky. 
Back, wings, and tail brownish ashy, with a metallic or bronze lustre ; the head and hind neck dusky slate-colour, 
blending imperceptibly into the hue of the back ; wings light ash-brown, the inner webs of the primaries and 
secondaries crossed with marginal bars of white, except at the tips, the secondaries white at the base of the inner 
webs ; tail light cinereous brown, with tips and a series of shaft-spots of white, a blackish subterminal bar and 
blackish shaft-streaks between the white spots, outermost feathers barred with white. 
Lores, face, throat, and fore neck pale ashy, the cheeks darker than the rest ; from the chest downwards white, with 
distant blackish, clear-margined bars ; under tail-coverts with the longer feathers only barred ; under wing-coverts 
buff- white, irregularly marked with black bars. 
An example not quite adult has the concealed portions of the hind-neck feathers barred with rufous, and the chest- 
feathers tipped and transversely marked with a paler hue of the same ; the lateral upper tail-coverts, which lie 
concealed, have the outer webs barred with rufous and white, with the interspaces dark brown. 
This Cuckoo is at once recognized at a glance from C. canorus by the presence of the dark caudal bar. 
Young. A specimen in nest-plumage from Darjiling has the upper surface a lustrous ruddy brown, all the feathers 
more or less deeply tipped — on the head and hind neck with buff-white, on the back and wing-coverts with 
rufous, the extreme tips being whitish, and on the rump and upper tail-coverts with dusky rufous, the quills tipped 
and their inner webs barred with rufous ; both margins of the central tail-feathers indented with rufous, and the 
tips of all the feathers fulvous-white, the outermost pair barred with rufous, and the next two pairs with the 
inner webs only barred with the same ; there is no bar, but the terminal inch of all the feathers is unmarked, 
imparting the appearance of a band ; under surface buff, barred heavily with blackish brown ; the markings of the 
chest not so regular as on the breast and flanks. 
An immature bird shot at Nalanda, Ceylon, is glossy grey-brown above, with a subdued ashen hue on the hind neck 
and head ; there is a lightish stripe above the eye and a narrow' dark edge in front of it ; greater secondary wing- 
coverts tipped with rufous, the primaries and secondaries tipped w'ith white, and the latter indented outwardly 
with rufous ; tail much as in the adult, but with the margins of the feathers indented with rufescent ; chin and 
lower part of chest washed with rufescent ; a dark brownish patch on the sides of the chest, and the central 
portion barred with blackish brown ; under parts with the bars broader than in the adult. 
Obs. The synonymy of this species is in a somewhat confused state, owing to Drapiez (Diet. Class. Hist. Nat. vol. iv. 
p. 570) having described a Cuckoo from Java in 1823, of a cindery-brown colour (“ brun-cendre ”) above, and 
