ARTAMIDES TEMMINCKI. 
Blue Cuckoo-Shrike. 
Cellepyris temmincki, S. Miiller, Ver. Natuurl. Gesch. Land- en Yolkenk. p. 191. 
Campephaga temmincki, Gray, Gen. of Birds, i, p. 283.— Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 172. — Gray, Hand-list of Birds, 
i. p. 337, no. 5081. 
Graucalus temmincki, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Ay. i. p. 354. — Hartl. Journ. fur Ornith. 1864, p. 446. — Walden, 
Trans. Zool. Soc. viii. pp. 68, 113, pi. xii. — Meyei’, Ibis, 1879, p. 129. 
Artamides temmincki, Sharpe, Brit. Mus. Cat. Birds, iy- p. 15. — Id. Abhandl. Mus. Dresden, Abth. iii. p. 363. 
I have already figured several Graucali or Cuckoo-Shrikes in my work on the Birds of Australia, and have 
hitherto been content to keep them in the genus Graucalus ; but Mr. Sharpe, who has recently classified the 
family of the Campephagidcs , considers that there are really four genera in which the Australian Cuckoo- 
Shrikes ought to be placed, and he arranges the species figured in my work as follows. Graucalus tenui- 
rostris should be placed in the genus Edoliisoma ; Campephaga karu, C. leucomela, and C. numeralis in Lalage ; 
so that only Graucalus melanops, G. parnirostris, G. mentalis, G. Injpoleucus , and G. swainsoni remain in the 
genus Graucalus ; Pteropodocys phasianella he admits to he generically distinct. As Count Salvadori, who 
has also studied these birds, agrees with Mr. Sharpe in many of his conclusions, I have deemed it best in 
the present work to adopt the arrangement of the last-named author. Graucalus, as a genus, appears to he 
widely distributed, as it occurs not only in Africa and Madagascar, hut extends all over India and Ceylon, 
through the Burmese countries to Formosa, and down the Malayan peninsula, throughout the Moluccas, to 
Australia and Tasmania; and one species has even straggled to New Zealand. The members of the genus 
Artamides, on the other hand, are not Australian, though they occur in New Caledonia and thence extend 
through the New-Hebrides group, New Guinea, and the Moluccas to the Indo-Malayan islands, the 
Malayan peninsula, and the Andamans : they are remarkable for very much stronger and stouter bills than 
the remainder of the Cuckoo-Shrikes. Both the genera Graucalus and Artamides contain representatives 
which are barred below, and others which are more or less uniform in coloration. 
The present species belongs to the uniform section of the genus Artamides, and is one of the most 
beautifully coloured not only of the genus to which it belongs, but also of the whole family of Cuckoo- 
Shrikes, which are, as a rule, remarkably plain-plumaged birds. Its home is the Island of Celebes ; and here 
it appears only to inhabit the mountains. It was discovered by Forsten in the neighbourhood of Gorontalo; 
and Dr. Meyer procured four specimens near Kakas, in the mountains of the Minahassa (about 2000 feet 
high). He never saw it elsewhere ; so that at present it is only known to inhabit the north-eastern 
promontory of Celebes. 
The following description of the species is given by Mr. Sharpe in his ‘ Catalogue — 
“ Adult. General colour greyish azure, with more or less of a cohalt hue, especially on the wings and 
tail, the inner webs of the quills and tail-feathers being blackish ; base of forehead, lores, and feathers in 
front of the eye blackish with a blue gloss; under surface of body azure-blue like the upper; under wing- 
coverts like the breast, the lower series and the underside of the quills ashy. Total length 12 inches, 
culmen 1, wing 5‘95, tail 5*9, tarsus 0*95.” A second specimen in the British Museum collected by Dr. 
Meyer had the tips to the bastard wing-feathers and the inner secondaries white, and is probably either a 
female or a younger bird. 
My figure represents the species of the full size, and is drawn from a specimen in my own collection. 
