COUCAL. 
Centropus 'tnacrourus Gould, Birds Austr., pt. xxix. (text to pi. 92, Vol. TV.), 1847 : Port 
Essington, Northern Territory; id., Handb. Birds Austr., Vol. I., p. 636, 1865; 
Masters, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. I., p. 67, 1875 (N.Q.) 
Centropus melanurus Gould, Birds Austr., pt. xxix. (text to pi. 92, Vol. IV.), 1847 : Derby, 
North-West Australia ; id., Handb. Birds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 636, 1865 ; Castelnau 
and Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. II., p. 383, 1878 (N.Q.) ; Ramsay, ib., 
Ser. 2, Vol. II., p. 170, 1887 (N.W.A.). 
Polophilus melanurus Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Heine, Vol. IV., p. 121, 1864, 
Polophilus macrurus Cabanis and Heine, ib., note. 
Centropus phasianus (subsp. a) macrourus Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc., N.S.W., Vol. II., 
p. 192, 1878. 
Centropus phasianus (subsp. b) melanurus Ramsay, ib. 
Centropus phasianinus phasianinus Mathews, Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., p. 297, 1912. 
Centropus phasianinus macrourus Mathews, ib. 
Centropus phasianinus melanurus Mathews, ib. 
Polophilus phasianinus phasianinus Mathews, List Birds Austr., p. 169, 1913. 
Polophilus phasianinus melanurus Mathews, ib., p. 160. 
Polophilus phasianinus macrourus Mathews, ib., p. 160. 
Polophilus phasianinus Tceatsi, Ashby, South Austr. Ornith., Vol. II., p, 72, 1915 : Port 
Keats, Northern Territory. 
Polophilus phasianinus yorki Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. III., p. 58, Apl. 7, 1916 : Cape 
York, Queensland. 
Distribution. New South Wales : Queensland : Northern Territory : North-west 
Australia and mid-West Australia. 
Adult female. Entire head, sides of face, throat, neck all round, breast, abdomen, and sides 
of body duU black in general appearance with conspicuously glossy black shafts which 
reach to the tips of the feathers, base of feathers sooty-brown, the webs, which are 
more or less disintegrated in structure , are ghttering bottle-green ; mantle and scapulars 
greenish black irregularly banded with dark chestnut, and, more narrowly, with buff, 
the shafts partly black and partly white ; lesser upper wing-coverts buff, irregularly 
marked with brown, ochreous-brown or chestnut brown, median and greater series 
similar, but the markings coarser and more pronounced ; flight-quiUs cinnamon rufous 
with mottled brown bars on the inner webs which are paler and narrower towards the 
base, broader and more intense on the terminal portion, and are more or less associated 
with buffy-white on the outer primaries, the dark pattern is increased in extent on 
the inner webs of the inner secondaries and the rufous-chestnut and buffy-white 
marking reduced to narrow bars ; the outer webs of the primary-quiUs marked with 
buff and dark brown which assume the shape of bars on the secondary-quiUs — all 
the quiUs fringed with white or buffy-white at the tips and the shafts rufous, 
becoming darker at the tips ; back and upper tail-coverts dusky-brown vfith 
narrow mottled bars of buffy-white ; tail greenish-brown with white, or buffy- 
white mottlings which assume the form of bars and broad margins at the tips of 
the feathers ; tliighs and mider tail-coverts black profusely marked with buff ; 
marginal under wing-coverts similar to the lesser upper wing-coverts, inner under 
wing-coverts and under-surface of flight-quiUs, rufous marked with dark brown and 
more or less with whitish ; lower aspect of tail blackish marked and tipped vdth buffy- 
white. Eyes red ; bill black : feet and tarsus leaden blue. Total length 710 mm. ; 
culmen 37, wing 276, tad 420, tarsus 48. Figured. Collected at Parry’s Creek, 
North-west Australia, on the 7th of November, 1908. 
Adult male. Similar, but smaller. 
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