CUCULUS SONNERATI. 
(SONNEKAT’S CUCKOO.) 
Cuculus sonnerati. Lath. Ind. Orn. i. no. 24, p. 215 (1790) ; Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1842, p. 906 , 
id. Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 72 (1849) ; Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 129 (1852) ; Layard, 
Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 452 ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 325 (1862) ; Holds- 
worth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 430; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 15, et 1875, p. 284. 
Cuculus himalayanus, Jerdon, Cat. B. S. India, Madr. Journ. 1840, xi. p. 220. 
Polyphasia sonnerati , Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. ii. p. 699 (1856). 
Penthoceryx sonnerati, Cab. et Heine, Mus. Hein. iv. p. 16 (1862) ; Walden, Ibis, 1872, 
p. 367. 
Le petit Coucou des Indes , Sonn. Voyage aux Indes, ii. p. 211 (1782); Sonnerat’s Cuckoo, 
Lath. Syn. Suppl. p. 102 ; The Banded Bay Cuckoo, Jerdon ; Rufous Cuckoo of some; 
“ Pine-weather Bird,” Planters in Ceylon. 
Punchi kolia, lit. “ little Cuckoo,” Sinhalese. 
Adult male. Length 9‘5 to 10‘0 inches ; wing 4'9 to 5-1 ; tail 4-8 to 4-9 ; tarsus O' 7 ; outer anterior toe 0-65, claw 
(straight) 025; bill to gape LI. 
Iris brownish red, paling at the outer edge to slaty and in some to yellowish ; bill blackish, gape fleshy yellow or 
reddish ; base of lower mandible bluish, in some yellowish ; inside of mouth orange-reddish ; legs and feet 
brownish slaty, or bluish leaden in some, the soles yellowish, claws dusky blackish. 
Forehead, top of the head, hind neck, upper surface, and wings hair- or nut-brown, with a green lustre, barred on the 
head, body, and wing-coverts with rufous-bay ; feathers of the forehead with white bases showing as spots on 
the surface ; on the hind neck the bars almost monopolize the feather and are lighter; the upper tad-coverts 
have marginal spots or indentations of, and are tipped with, rufous ; the quills and primary-coverts are unbarred, 
but are rufescent whitish inwardly, and are externally finely edged with rufous ; tail deep brown tipped white 
and edged or indented with rufous-bay, the inner webs of all but the centre feathers rufous with dark bars next 
the shaft, these latter have rufescent tips sometimes and at others want the light extremities altogether ; en ire 
under surface and feathers above the eye and down the side of the head between the nape and ear-coverts white, 
with narrow wavy blackish bars; ear-coverts darkish; the under tail-coverts and flanks, and in some specimens 
(probably young) the lower parts, tinted with fulvous ; edge of wing white. 
Female. Is, according to my experience, generally a smaller bird than the male. Length 9-o inches ; wing 4-o to 4 9 . 
bill to gape 1*0 to 1-05. 
Iris hazel or reddish, with a yellowish outer circle ; bill lighter than that of the male. 
Has the upper-surface bars paler than in the male, and the under tail-coverts pure white or less coloured than the 
other sex. 
Scarcely any two specimens of this Cuckoo are barred above precisely alike ; with age the transverse marks seem to 
reduce themselves. 
Younq Birds of the year are said to be more coarsely barred with paler bauds than the adult, and to have the lower 
parts more tinged with fulvous. 
Immature birds cannot be confounded with the rufous phase of Polyphagia, being, first of all, stouter or more massive, 
the bill much wider ; and, secondly, they are more narrowly barred, and the under surface is all white, whereas in 
the latter the throat, chest, and generally the breast and abdomen are rufous. 
Ohs This handsome little Cuckoo is closely allied to the Malayan species C. pravatus, Horsf., which inhabits Malacca 
’ and many of the islands of the Archipelago, including Sumatra, Java, and Borneo. This is a much smaller m 
and more neatly barred, and wants the green gloss on the upper surface. Two individuals which I have examm 
