Genus HIEROCOCCYX. 
Bill wide at the gape. Wings shorter than in Cuculus ; the 1st quill short and the 3rd 
longer than the 2nd. Tail subeven. 
Plumage Hawk-like in character, the young being striped beneath. 
HIEROCOCCYX VARIUS. 
(THE COMMON HAWK-CUCKOO.) 
Cuculus varius, Vahl, Skriv. af Natur. Selsk. iv. p. 60 (1797) ; Strickland, Ann. & Mag. Nat. 
Hist. 1846, p. 398 ; Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. no. 339, p. 70 ; Layard et Kelaart, 
Cat. Ceylon B. App. Prodromus, p. 60 (1853) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, 
xiii. p. 452. 
Cuculus fugax , Horsf. Tr. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 178 (1821); Jerdon, Cat. B. S. India, Madr. 
Journ. 1840, xi. p. 219. 
Cuculus lathami , J. E. Gray, 111. Ind. Zool. p. 34, fig. 2 (1832). 
Hierococcyx varius , Horsfield& Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. ii. p. 700 (1856) ; Jerdon, B. 
of Ind. i. p. 329 ; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 431 ; Ball, Str. Eeath. 1874, p. 393 ; Bligh, 
J. A. S. (Ceylon Branch) 1874, p. 67; Bourdillon, ibid. 1876, p. 392; Ball, ibid. 
1877, p. 413. 
Bychan Cuckoo ; Sokagu Cuckoo , Latham, Hist, of Birds. 
Kupak or Upak, Hind.; Kokgallo, Bengalese; Kuttipitta, Tel.; Takkhat, lit. “Custom- 
house Bird,” in Deccan ; Irolan, Malabar ( apud J erdon). 
Adult male and female. Length 13'0 to 14-7 inches ; wing 7'4 to 8-2 (Hume ) ; tail 6-5 to 6-8 ; tarsus 0-9 to 1'0 ; 
outer anterior toe and claw 1*2 to l - 3 ; bill to gape 1’15 to 1‘3. 
Females are smaller than males. The above limit of the wing is that of a male, and must be exceptional. Several 
specimens I have examined from Ceylon and N.W. India vary from 7'5 to 7‘8 inches, which I imagine is about the 
average limit. 
Iris yellow ; bill, upper mandible and tip of lower brown, base of under mandible and gape yellow ; orbits bright 
yellow ; feet gamboge-yellow, claws dusky at the tips. 
Above dark ashen grey, darkest on the interscapular region and palest on the rump and upper tail-coverts ; basal 
margins of the feathers on the hind neck more or less rufous, showing on the surface of the plumage ; quills aud 
winglet grey-brown ; inner webs of primaries partly crossed from the edge with wide bars of white, more or less 
mottled with grey ; extreme tips of the secondaries pale ; tail brownish ashen, tipped with rufous and crossed 
with a broad subterminal band of blackish brown, above which are four narrow bars of the same, with an adjacent, 
pale cross ray at the lower edge, which expands aud is more conspicuous on the outer feathers ; under surface of 
the light portions whitish. 
Lores, cheeks, and ear-coverts bluish ashen ; chin ashen, the extreme point darkest ; throat and chest rufous, the 
centres of the feathers bluish grey in some, with the basal edges whitish, in others the whole basal portion of the 
feather is bluish grey ; lower part of chest, breast, aud flanks barred with the same on the rufous ground, which 
pales gradually into unmarked buff-white on the belly, vent, and under tail-coverts ; under wing-coverts pale 
rufous or fulvescent, the greater series barred with bluish ashen ; under surface of quill-bars buff-white. 
When not fully adult the markings of the under surface are darker and the rufous is confined to the chest. A 
specimen shot by Mr. Bligh in Kotmalie has the lores whitish ; the chin and cheeks dark slate, with the centre 
of the throat white ; the chest is washed with rufous, this colour is barred with slate, which gradually darkens on 
