Species.
- a1. Tail with a subterminal black band; crown and throat grayish contrasting with mantle and back. micropterus (p. [370])
- a2. Tail without a subterminal black band; crown and throat gray like the back.
333. CUCULUS MICROPTERUS Gould.
SHORT-WINGED CUCKOO.
- Cuculus micropterus Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1837), 137; Shelley, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1891), 19, 241; Grant, Ibis (1896), 560; Sharpe, Hand-List (1900), 2, 158; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1900), 61.
Negros (Whitehead). Malay and Indian Peninsulas, Andaman Islands, Burmese Provinces, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Ternate, Ceylon, China, Japan.
“Adult.—Above dark brown, shading into slaty gray on the back of the neck and head; tail rather paler brown, with a broad subterminal black bar and a white tip, all the feathers having about five or six white spots on their quills, increasing in size toward the outer feathers, and most of them having white notches on their inner webs; throat gray, sometimes shaded with dusky on the sides of the crop; sides of the head and neck rather darker gray, more like the crown; remainder of the under parts buff or white, rather broadly barred with black, the under tail-coverts being less regularly marked and with fewer bars; under surface of the wings as in C. canorus. ‘Iris brown; bill horny, below lighter and tinted with yellow toward the base; gape and eyelids bright yellow; feet and legs duller yellow; two front claws horny, two hind ones yellow.’ (Bingham.) Length, 305; culmen, 25; wing, 20; tail, 160; tarsus, 20.
“Immature.—Above brown, darker on the head; the crown and neck thickly mottled with broad fulvous ends to the feathers; feathers on the back and wings broadly tipped with rufous or buff; tail very similar to that of the adult, but with the pale portion more rufous; beneath buff, barred with black, and mottled with gray on the throat in older specimens.” (Shelley.)