Species.
- a1. Tail longer, about 120 mm.; head, neck, and back with a light oil-green gloss. lugubris (p. [366])
- a2. Tail shorter, about 100 mm.; head, neck, and back blue-black without gloss. velutinus (p. [367])
329. SURNICULUS LUGUBRIS (Horsfield).
GLOSSY DRONGO CUCKOO.
- Cuculus lugubris Horsfield, Trans. Linn. Soc. (1821), 13, pt. 1, 179.
- Surniculus lugubris Shelley, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1891), 19, 227; Sharpe, Hand-List (1900), 2, 156; Oates and Reid, Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1903), 3, 104; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 60.
Balabac (Everett); Palawan (Everett, Whitehead, Platen, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, Celestino, White). Southern China, Malay and Indian Peninsulas, Burmese provinces, Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, Borneo.
Adult male.—Black; wings, upper and under tail-coverts, and tail glossed with dark green; head, neck, back, and under parts glossed with blue; a few hidden white feathers on occiput; a patch of white feathers on each thigh; under tail-coverts narrowly barred and tipped with white; a large white spot on inner web of first primary; a diagonal white bar across inner webs of inner primaries; outermost tail-feathers incompletely barred and tipped with white; outer webs of three or four outer tail-feathers narrowly edged with white near base. “Bill, legs, and claws black; gape and inside of mouth orange-red; iris brown.” (Shelley.) Length, 240; wing, 130; tail, 122; culmen from base, 24.
Adult female.—Similar to the male. Wing, 120; tail, 112; culmen from base, 21.
“Immature.—Slightly less glossy, of a more violet shade, and with clear white terminal spots to many of the feathers irregularly dispersed over the plumage; under wing-coverts irregularly barred with white, and the white bar across the quills broader than in the adult; the tail rather more barred with white, the white bars being much more distinct on the outer feathers, and the penultimate ones partially barred near their quills, and all the feathers with white spots at their tips.
“This species varies considerably in the shape of the tail which is sometimes very much forked, with the long feathers curved outwards towards their ends, but is sometimes square, the outer feather on each side being always short. The white of the nape is often absent, and the amount of the white spotting of the upper tail-coverts varies greatly. The most constant characters are the white spot and bar on the under surface of the quills, the bars on the under tail-coverts, and the bars on the outer tail-feathers, the latter varying in amount according to age. The immature bird, Cuculus albopunctatus Drap. has white spots which vary in number and size, the last to disappear with age being those at the ends of the tail-feathers. * * *.” (Shelley.)