THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Adult male. Greneral colour of the upper-surface slate-grey, including the head, back, 
and wings with a bottle-green gloss on the last ; primary and secondary quiUs 
pale brown on the inner-webs, white at the base and barred with white on the outer 
primaries ; tail dark brown with a steel-blue gloss, the feathers tipped with white and 
irregularly marked with the same colour which takes the form of short twin lines 
along the shafts of the middle feathers, and slightly fringed in places, on the outer 
webs these white marks are increased in extent on the lateral feathers ; head paler 
than the back, with dark shaft-lines to the feathers ; throat, fore-neck and upper- 
breast ash-grey ; lower-breast and abdomen white barred with dark browm ; under 
tail-coverts buff also barred with dark brown ; under wing-coverts isabelline barred 
with ash-grey ; under-surface of quills pale brown barred with white ; lower aspect of 
tail dark brown tipped and marked with white. Eyes dark yellow, eyelash yellow ; feet 
and tarsus yellow ; bill, upper mandible and distal half of tomium of lower mandible 
black, balance of lower and base of upper mandible olive-grey. Total length 355 
mm. ; cuhnen 20, wing 210, tail 153, tarsus 21. Figured. Collected on Parry’s Creek, 
North-west Australia, on the 26th of January, 1909. 
Adult female. Very similar to the adult male. 
Immature. Upper-surface brown barred with rufous and more obscurely with white ; fore- 
part of head for the most part rufous with brown tips to the feathers, while some of 
the feathers are barred with white, those above the eye and on the sides of the neck 
subterminally ; lesser upper wing-coverts dark brown very slightly edged with white 
like the median and greater series and tips of primary-coverts, inner primary and 
secondary quills ; some of the scapulars and feathers on the lower back, rump, and 
upper tail-coverts have pale pin-like marks on the shafts, the lateral upper tail-coverts 
are slightly fringed with white at the tips ; tail bronze-brown with oblique rufous 
bars, white marks on the shafts, and white tips to the feathers, becoming paler on 
the outer feathers where the white pattern is more extended ; sides of the face, 
throat, fore-neck and upper-breast buffy-white barred with brown ; lower- 
breast, abdomen, axillaries, and sides of the body creamy-white barred with brown ; 
under tail-coverts buff, irregularly marked with brown ; under wing-coverts creamy- 
white with a buffy tinge ; quills below pale brown barred with white or very pale 
rufous ; lower aspect of tail similarly coloured with white tips to the feathers. 
Eyes pale brown ; feet yellow ; bill under mandible pale brown ; upper black ; 
gape yellow ; greenish brown line on upper mandible towards the gape. , Figured. 
Collected at Kuranda, North Queensland, on the 30th of January, 1912. 
Egg and Breeding-season. Not recorded. 
When Gould received specimens of this Cuckoo he at once described them 
under the name Cuculus optatus and figured it under that name. In his “ Hand- 
book,” however, he used the name Cuculus canoroides Muller with a query mark 
after it, but without further explanation. His account then read : “ The 
northern part of Australia is the only locality in which this bird has been found ; 
the specimens I have seen were killed in the month of January ; whether it utters 
the word “ Cuckoo ” or not I am unable to say, but it is most likely that in its 
voice, as in its form and general appearance, it closely assimilates to its European 
relative. In the Australian bird the black bands on the breast are broader and 
more defined than in the European C. canorus ; the claws of the AustraHan bird 
are also smaller and more delicate than those of its European ally.” 
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