“SS

CUCULUS HYPERYTHRUS, Gow.

Rufous-bellied Cuckoo.

Cuculus hyperythrus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc. April 22, 1856.

 

Curna has hitherto been, as it were, a sealed country to the scientific explorer, consequently all the natural
productions of that part of the world have been regarded with especial interest. That its feathered
inhabitants partake of a triple character is certain; in the first place, it possesses several species of birds
which are precisely identical with some of those of the British Islands; in the next, it is tenanted by several
additional species of the same forms; and in the third, by forms which are peculiarly its own: the
present species, which is a true Cuculus, pertains to the second of these divisions. I have never seen
examples from any other country; neither, so far as I am aware, has it ever before received a specific
appellation ; for I have looked in vain for a description of it in every work to which I could obtain
access, particularly in the valuable monograph of the genus lately published by Mr. Blyth. In size it
is rather less than the Common Cuckoo of Europe, and it is altogether less elegant in its general contour.
The rufous colouring of the breast and under surface, and the black marks on the throat and cheeks,
are characters seldom seen among the Cuculid@, and by which it may at once be distinguished.

A fine specimen of this bird, now at the British Museum, but which was formerly in my possession, was
shot at Shanghai, and this, I regret to say, is all I know respecting it.

Crown of the head, all the upper surface and wings dark slate-grey ; spurious wings white ; lores, ear-
coverts, moustache and spot on the chin black ; throat white, with a fine line of brown down the shaft of each
feather ; under surface dull rusty red; tail grey, crossed by two narrow irregular bands of black bordered
with brown, and by a very broad band of black near the extremity, the tip bemg reddish brown ; upper
mandible black ; lower mandible and feet yellow.

Total length, 114 inches ; bill, 14; wing, 8; tail, 63.

The figures are of the natural size.