Head and all the upper surface dark slate-grey; wings brown, glossed
with green; tail dark glossy greenish brown, each feather toothed on the
edge with white, the extent of which gradually increases until on the
lateral feathers they assume the form of irregular interrupted bars; on
the edge of the shoulder a short narrow stripe of white; on the under
surface of the wing an oblique band of white; chin grey; under surface
ferruginous; bill black, except at the base of the lower mandible, where
it is fleshy orange; irides dark brown; eyelash beautiful citron-yellow;
feet yellowish olive.
The figures are of the size of life.
[Illustration:
CUCULUS INSPERATUS: _Gould_.
_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _Hullmandel & Walton Imp._
]
CUCULUS INSPERATUS, _Gould_.
Brush Cuckoo.
_Cuculus insperatus_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part XIII. p. 19.
While traversing the cedar brushes of the Liverpool range on the 26th of
October, 1839, my attention was attracted by the appearance of a Cuckoo,
which I at first mistook for the _Cuculus cineraceus_, but which on
examination proved to be the new species here represented; this example
was the only one I ever saw living, and a single skin is all that has
since been sent to me from New South Wales; it must therefore be very
rare in the south-eastern portion of the continent, but it is doubtless
equally as common a few degrees to the northward. At Port Essington
there is a nearly allied species differing from the present in being
much smaller, and in having a browner tint on the under surface; to this
bird I have given the specific appellation of _dumetorum_; but as it
closely resembles the species here represented, it will not be necessary
to give a figure of it.
On comparison, this species will be found to differ from _C.
cineraceus_, for which it might be readily mistaken, in its smaller
size, in the more square form of the tail, and in that organ being
destitute of white markings on the outer webs of the feathers. In its
structure and colouring it will be found to depart from the true
_Cuculi_ and to approximate to the members of the genus _Chalcites_, and
in fact to form one of the links which unite the two groups.
Head, throat and all the upper surface dark slate-grey; back and wings
glossed with green; tail glossy brownish green, each feather tipped with
white, and with a row of triangular-shaped white markings on the margins
of the inner webs; primaries and secondaries with a patch of white on
their inner webs near the base; edge of the shoulder white; under
surface of the shoulder, vent and under tail-coverts rufous; remainder
of the under surface grey, washed with rufous; bill black; feet olive.
The figures are of the natural size.
[Illustration:
CHALCITES OSCULANS: _Gould_.
_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _Hullmandel & Walton Imp._
]
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