- Cuculus canorus Linnæus, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 (1758), 1, 110; Shelley, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1891), 19, 245; Blanford, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1895), 3, 205, fig. 60 (head); Sharpe, Hand-List (1900), 2, 158; Oates and Reid, Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1903), 3, 105; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 61.
Basilan (McGregor); Batan (McGregor); Calayan (McGregor); Palawan (Platen); Siquijor (Bourns & Worcester). Europe and northern Asia; in winter to Africa, Indian Peninsula, Malayan subregion to Australia.
“Adult male.—General color above leaden gray, slightly shaded with olive on the mantle and wings; quills dark brown, more or less notched with white on the inner webs; lateral upper tail-coverts narrowly edged and partially barred with white; tail slaty black, with white ends to all the feathers and with about seven double white spots along their shafts and white notches on their inner webs never forming bars across the feathers; sides of the head and neck, chin, and throat gray, slightly paler than the crown; remainder of the under parts white, shaded with buff on the abdomen and under tail-coverts, and very regularly barred with dusky black; axillars and under wing-coverts barred like the breast, with a portion near the bend of the wing and most of the greater series leaden gray; quills beneath dusky brown, with white bars on their inner webs, broadest and most strongly marked toward the base of the feathers. Bill black, yellowish at the base and edges; iris and legs yellow. Length, 356; culmen, 229; wing, 226; tail, 178; tarsus, 20.
“Adult female.—Differs only in plumage from the male in having the base of the throat shaded with rufous. Length, 320; culmen, 22; wing, 211; tail, 173; tarsus, 19.
“Nestling.—General plumage above dark brown, partially barred with rufous, with a narrow white terminal margin to each of the feathers, broadest on the wings and tail; crown and nape much mottled with white; sides of the head, chin, and throat blackish brown and white in broad bars of nearly even breadth; remainder of the under surface of the body white, with blackish brown bars not half the width of the intervening white spaces. Length, 170; wing, 127.
“Young nearly full-grown.—Above gray, passing into brownish black on the head, wings, and tail; crown and nape mottled with white feathers; feathers of the head, neck, wings, and tail strongly barred with rufous; remainder of the back much less distinctly barred, each feather being tipped with white next to a subterminal dark bar; tail with waved rufous bars passing into white near the shafts of the feathers and with white ends; general color of the under parts buffish white, with blackish brown bars, slightly broader on the chin and throat than on the breast. Length, 297; wing, 184.
“Hepatic phase.—General color of the upper parts cinnamon, barred on the head, mantle, and wings with dusky black; lower back and upper tail-coverts with a few black spots next to their shafts; outer tail-coverts with partial traces of dark bars; tail partially barred with black and marked with white near the shafts, the tips, and some of the edges of the feathers, and with a broad subterminal black band; under parts buffish white, rather darker on the throat, and all the feathers barred with dusky black. Length, 297; culmen, 22; wing, 216; tail, 170; tarsus, 19.” (Shelley.)
“We secured a single specimen in Siquijor in February, 1891; a second specimen was seen but not secured. The specimen in question, a male, measures, 311 in length; wing, 201; tail, 161; culmen, 27; tarsus, 22; middle toe with claw, 26. Iris brownish yellow, with inner ring of dull brown; feet bright yellow; nails yellowish, except that of middle toe, which is black; upper mandible black, lower light yellowish.” (Bourns and Worcester MS.)