LY

4H I.

CHALCITES MEYER
Meyer’s Golden Cuckoo.

Wine n re my Nadae Mavar err -s Aue pr :
Chrysococcyx splendidus, Meyer, Sitz. k. Akad. der Wissenschaften 2 Wien, Ixix. p. 81 (1874)
Chrysococcyx meyert, Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genova, Vil. pp. 82, 762 (1875)
Lamprococcyx meyertt, Salvad. Ann. Mus. ( :

NES SOMONE, VIL TH, OID (I).

ee

Tue little Golden Cuckoos form a natural section of the Cuculide, and are found all over Africa, India, the
Malayan archipelago, Australia, and New Zealand. The African species are certainly the most brilliant:
and none of the eastern ones can approach the E
plumage. In the plate I have endeavoured to illustrate a very common scene in the life of the Australian
Golden Cuckoos ; and I have no doubt that this New-Guinea species is parasitic on some of the small Warblers
which are found in the same country, such as the Malurus alboscapulatus, which is the species I have ven-
tured to introduce into my Plate. Dr. Buller, in the ‘Birds of New Zealand,’ gives a very interesting
"that country (Chaleites lucidus) and its
on these birds will be found in my own and other au

i
account of the little Cuckoo of breeding-habits; and other notes
thors’ works.
The peculiar fiery bronze colour of the present species is one of its special characteristics. It was dis-
covered by Dr. Meyer in the Arfak Mountains; and, as the latter gentleman observes, it ‘‘ has the same
brilliant gloss as the African Chrysococcyx klaasii, while the other known Golden Cuckoos of the east are not
so entirely metallic. It is, moreover, distinguished from the other known species by the absence of any grey or
white over the eye and on the cheeks, but is especially remarkable for the fine rust-brown colour of the wings,
which in some degree call to mind the ‘ rufous tint of the upper surface’ of Chrysococcyx russata of Gould.”
Dr. Meyer named this bird C. splendidus; but as that title had already been applied by the late Mr. Gray
to a South-African species, Count Salvadori very properly changed it to C. meyerz, one of the best and most
appropriate names which could have been selected, in my opinion, in acknowledgment of Dr. Meyer’s
services to science in his celebrated voyages to the East. I should have followed Salvadori in calling this
species a Chrysococcyx ; but having placed all the Golden Cuckoos in my previous works under the genus
Chalcites, { am obliged, for the sake of uniformity, to relegate this species to the same genus.
The following is a translation of Meyer’s original description :—
“Head, cheeks, neck, back, wing-coverts, uropygium, and upper tail-coverts splendidly metallic green
and copper-red ; only behind the eyes, on the sides of the neck, a large white pale» chin, throat, breast,
belly, and under tail-coverts with bands just as brilliant as the upper parts ; under wing-coverts au stmpeds
but the stripes brownish erey; wings on the upperside, at the base and at ihe ends dkadiele. ne the
middle reddish brown, and more vividly coloured on the outer webs than on the inner ; Under of ive
wing at the ends grey, elsewhere lieht reddish brown ; upperside of dhe tail, the two middle a a te
green and copper-coloured, but not as brilliant as the upperside of the body ; the oe ee =
only on the outer webs, the outermost very feeble, inner webs blackish ee a white patch 3 ie 3
outermost rectrice bears on the inner web, on a black ground, five white spots, on the out oe oe
the last very narrow; underside of the tail greyish black, with whitish tips, the outermost rectrices on the
inner web black, with five white spots, on the outer web lighter, with Sis oe spots.
Total length 160 millims. ; bill from the front 12, wings 91, tail 70. Po
The Plate represents, of the natural size, the type specimen of this species, kit

friend Dr. Meyer.

ly lent to me by my

merald Cuckoo (Chalcites smaragdineus) for beauty of