Genus ZANCLOSTOMUS. 
Bill more slender than and not so deep as in the last genus, not so inflated near the base ; 
the gape more festooned. Nostrils ovoid, basal, and placed higher up than in Phoenicophaes. Lye 
surrounded by nude skin. Wings with the 4th and 5th quills subequal and longest. Tail, legs, 
and feet much as in the last. Shafts of the throat-feathers rigid. 
ZANCLOSTOMUS VIRIDIROSTRIS. 
(THE GREEN-BILLED MALKOIIA.) , 
Zanclostomus viridirostris , Jerd. Cat. B. S. India, Madr. Journ. 1840, xi. p. 223, et 111. Ind. 
Orn. i. pi. 3 ; Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1845, p. 200 ; id. Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 76. no. 375 
(1849) ; Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av. p. 99 (1850) ; Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 129 (1852) ; 
Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 453 ; Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. 
E. I. Co. ii. p. 690 (1856) ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 346 (1862) ; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 
1872, p. 432 ; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 16, et 1875, p. 284 ; ITume, Str. Feath. 1876, p. 458 ; 
Fairbank, ibid. 1877, p. 397. 
Phcenicophans jerdoni, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1842, p. 1095. 
Phopodytes viridirostris , Cab. et Heine, Mus. Hein. pt. iv. p. 63 (1862). 
The Small Green-billed Malkoha , Jerdon, B. of India. 
Kappra-popya, Hind. ; Wamana Jcaki, lit. “ Dwarf Crow,’ Telugu. 
Mal-kmndetta, Sinhalese ; also llandi-koota (apud Daniell) ; Poosil, Ceylon, lamils (Layard). 
Adult male, and female. Length 15'0 to 15'75 inches ; wing 5T to 5'4 ; tail 8'4 to 9'3 ; tarsus 1'3 to 1‘35 ; outer 
anterior toe O' 9, its claw (straight) 0-3 ; bill to gape 1‘2 to 1*4. 
Iris deep brown; bill pale leaf-green; orbital skin in front of eye cobalt-blue, paling behind into pale bluish; legs and 
feet dusky green or greenish blue. 
Above greenish grey, overcome with a strong green gloss from the hind neck down to the rump ; lores, at the base of 
the bill, and round the orbital region shading into blackish ; wings and tail deep metallic green, the tips of the 
quills dusky ; terminal portion of tail-feathers white, deepest on the outer webs of all but the central pair, which 
are evenly tipped and with less white than the rest ; throat blackish, with greyish or pale fulvous striae, formed by 
the double tips of the feathers being of that colour, and exceeding the black shaft ; on the chest the feathers 
gradually become fulvous-grey, and from that pure fulvous on the breast and abdomen ; flanks, thighs, and under 
tail-coverts cinereous, the two latter washed with fulvous. 
Some examples, probably immature birds, have the under surface paler than the above, and the upper surface less 
glossed with green ; the stria; of the throat are less fulvous in some than in others. 
The furcate formation of the throat-feathers is most singular, and was, it appears, first pointed out by Blyth, with his 
usual habit of minute and accurate observation. 
06s. On comparing Ceylonese with South- Indian examples, I find no appreciable difference ; an individual from Madras 
measures as follows — wing 5T inches ; tail 9'2 ; tarsus 1'35 ; bill to gape 1'23. 
This species does not differ widely in plumage from the North-Indian Z. ti'istis, which has not got the under parts rufous, 
and has the throat whiter, with the nude skin round the eye crimson, instead of blue. The latter species, however, is 
much larger, the wing measuriug 6f inches according to Jerdon, and it is consequently styled the “ Large Green- 
billed Malkoha.” 
Distribution. — This Cuckoo is widely diffused throughout the low country of Ceylon, being most numerous 
