BANDED BAY CUCKOO.
- Cuculus sonnerati Latham, Ind. Orn. (1790), 1, 215; Shelley, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1891), 19, 262.
- Penthoceryx sonnerati Blanford, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1895), 3, 219, fig. 63 (head); Sharpe, Hand-List (1900), 2, 159; Oates and Reid, Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1903), 3, 115, pl. 2, fig. 2; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 61.
Calamianes (Bourns & Worcester); Palawan (Whitehead, Bourns & Worcester); Tablas (Bourns & Worcester). Malay and Indian Peninsulas, Burmese provinces, Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Timor.
“Adult.—Above alternately barred with rufous and dusky bronze, with a slight olive gloss; forehead more or less spotted with white; a white patch on the carpal joint faintly barred with dusky; tail with rufous-shaded white ends; center feathers blackish, with a number of rufous notches on both webs; remaining feathers bright rufous, with a broad subterminal dark bar and a variable number of other bands; sides of the head and under parts white, evenly marked with narrow wavy bars of blackish brown, the lower breast and under tail-coverts slightly tinted with rufous; under wing-coverts pale rufous-buff, barred like the breast; under surface of the quills dark brown, with a large basal portion of their inner webs rufous-buff, more or less barred with dark brown. Bill black, with base of lower mandible gray; legs greenish gray. Length, 234; culmen, 19; wing, 122; tail, 122; tarsus, 18.
“Immature.—Above rufous; the upper back, scapulars, and wing-coverts barred with olive-shaded black; a band of this color runs down the centers of some of the tail-feathers, and most of these feathers have bold black spots near their ends and occasionally white tips; sides of the head and sides of the neck rufous like the crown; remainder of the under parts white, with the blackish bars on the throat and chest broader than in the adult.” (Shelley.)
“An adult male from the Calamianes Islands measures, 216 in length; wing, 104; tail, 98; culmen, 24; tarsus, 15; middle toe with claw, 21. Iris dark brown; legs and feet drab; upper mandible black, lower dark gray. Our Tablas specimens are immature, but there seems little room for doubt as to their identity.” (Bourns and Worcester MS.)
Genus CACOMANTIS S. Müller, 1843.
Size small; wing short and pointed; third primary longest; primaries exceeding secondaries by one-third of length of wing; tail strongly graduated, longer than wing. In this genus the young have a barred plumage which disappears in the adult; Penthoceryx has no change of pattern but retains the barred livery in the adult state.