184 
Recently published Ornithological Works. 
( Urocichla longicaudata) and the local form of Laughing- 
Thrush ( Dryonectes subcceruleus ). 
Mr. Stuart Baker’s List of Species is compiled from the 
collections of Hume, Godwin-Austen, and others, and from 
several collections made by his own men. He follows the 
arrangement and nomenclature of the ‘ Fauna of British 
India/ and gives short notes to each species. As regards the 
subfamily Brachypteryginse of the Crateropodidse, he remarks 
that, although for the sake of convenience he retains Oates’s 
classification, there is no doubt that the majority of the 
birds placed in this family in the f Fauna of British India ’ 
belong elsewhere. He would accordingly refer the genera 
Myiophoneus, Larvivora , and Drymochares to the Turdidse. 
Altogether Mr. Stuart Baker enumerates about S36 species 
as belonging to the Khasian Avifauna. 
22. Stuart Baker on the Indian Cuckoos. 
[The Oology of Indian Parasitic Cuckoos. By E. C. Stuart Baker, 
F.Z.S. Journ. Bombay N. H. Soc. 1906-8. (Parts I.-V.)] 
The abnormal breeding-habits of the Cuckoos are of 
special interest to all naturalists, and Mr. Stuart-Baker has 
done well to prepare a series of papers on the engrossing 
subject of their eggs, to which he has long devoted his 
attention. 
“ The great difficulty,” he observes, “ to be overcome in 
collecting Cuckoos’ eggs is not so much to get hold of eggs 
which are Cuckoos’ beyond all doubt, but to obtain proof as 
to what particular Cuckoo they belong to. To do this it is 
absolutely necessary to get eggs direct from the oviduct of 
the female, and because Cuckoos’ eggs vary so much it is of 
no use to get one egg only, but series are required.” The 
Indian Parasitic Cuckoos, to which Mr. Stuart-Baker con¬ 
fines his attention, are 17 in number, belonging to the 
genera Cuculus , Hierococcyx , Cacomantis , Penthoceryx , 
Chrysococcyx , Surniculus , Coccystes, and Eudynamis. The 
true Cuculi in India are four. Our familiar C. canorus , 
which heads the list, is stated to breed freely throughout 
the Himalayas and Sub-Himalayas, the Burmese Hills, 
