RUFOUS-BREASTED BRONZE CUCKOO. 
inclination to a whitish spot, the next two pairs similar but the bronze-green increasing 
in extent towards the base on the outer webs and a well pronounced white spot at 
the tip on the inner webs, the outermost pair rufous with four black marks, chiefly 
on the inner webs, the two nearest the base, however, extends on to the outer web, 
the two middle ones on the inner-webs are shadowed by incomplete white spots on 
their distal edges, and the subapical one by a well pronounced white spot, three 
slight indentations of white on the outer web towards the base, there is just a slight 
shade of bronze-green on the outer web at the tip ; sides of the fore-head and a line 
over the eye whitish with dark spots on some of the feathers ; fore-part of cheeks 
also whitish ; throat and entire under-surface white barred with bronze-brown or 
purple narrowly on the chin, throat, and under wing-coverts and more broadly on 
the breast, abdomen, sides of body and under tail-coverts ; sides of the neck washed 
with cinnamon rufous and much more faintly on the middle of the breast ; under- 
surface pale brown with a large rufous patch ; lower aspect of tail rufous, a broad 
dark subterminal band on the outer feathers, except the outermost, accompanied 
by a white spot at the tip of the inner-web, and four dark spots on the inner-webs of 
the outermost pair of feathers. Eyes light reddish-brown ; eyelid scarlet ; feet and 
tarsus brownish-black ; bill black, base of lower mandible brownish. Total length 
157 mm. ; culmen 13, wing 92, tail 62, tarsus 15. Figured. Collected near Cairns, 
North Queensland, on the 29th of July, 1913. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male, but with the eyehds brown. 
Immature. Uniform grey on the under-surface. 
When he described this species Gould made a long essay, and I here 
reproduce the bulk, as the remarks are so well applicable to-day, just fiifty years 
afterward. “ For some years past I have been treasuring up all the specimens 
I could obtain of the little Bronze Cuckoo of Cape York, under the impression 
that it would ultimately prove to be distinct from the species of the same form 
inhabiting New South Wales, Western Australia and Tasmania ; and I have 
now before me four, exhibiting a uniformity of characterisation which dis- 
tinguishes them from all their congeners, however closely allied. To the 
unpractised eye they would appear to be identical with one or other of the 
previously described species ; and a cursory observer might suppose that 
the Australian members of this genus are identical with those inhabiting the 
islands to the northward of that country. This, however, I venture to say, is 
not the case, and I shall here point out in what particulars the bird from the 
Cape York peninsula differs from the rest. In size it is rather smaller than 
the one or more inhabiting the southern coast of Australia, but at the s^e 
time has a stouter bill, in which respect it somewhat resembles the Port 
Essington Chrysococcyx minutillus ; it differs, however, from that and every 
other species in the rich buff colouring of the under-surface of the wings or the 
basal portions of the primaries. Moreover a rufous tint pervades the upper- 
surface ; and the rufous hue of the tail is of a deeper colour, all the feathers 
except the two central ones, being of a rich rusty -fawn colour, and the outer 
one on each side only marked with spots or bands of black and white ; a similar 
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