CUCKOOS. 
9 
•only a genus but a separate subfamily. They are ground-birds, of medium or large 
size, remarkable for the long spur on the first toe, whence their English name is 
derived. They build nests, and lay several white eggs, the shell of which is 
■chalky, showing an approach to the remarkable eggs of the anis described farther 
on. The general colour of the coucals is red and black, but some of them are 
entirely black, while the Australian pheasant-cuckoo ( Centropus phasianellns) is 
banded with brown and buff. The young birds of all the other species have a 
similar kind of plumage, and it is said that some species also possess a winter 
garb or “ seasonal plumage.” If this is the case, it lasts for a very short period. 
Egyptian coucal (| uat. size). 
The Indian coucal ( C. sinensis) is a species of large size, measuring nearly 
two feet in length, and black in colour, with the mantle and wings chestnut, and 
havino- a blue gloss on the head and a green gloss on the under-parts. It is found 
all over India and Ceylon, and, like the rest of the genus, has a curious howling 
note, whoot, whoot, whoot, whoot, followed after a pause of four or five seconds by 
kurook, kurook, kurook, kurook. The nest is generally domed, and is a rough 
structure, described by Mr. Hume as a “ hollow, oblate spheroid, some eighteen 
inches in external diameter, and from six to eight inches in height, with a large 
hole on one side, from the entrance of which to the back of the nest inside may bo 
twelve inches. This, of course, is not large enough to admit the whole bird, so 
that, when sitting, its tail is commonly seen projecting outside the nest. The latter 
