Cuculus sparverioides Vigors, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1831), 173.
Hierococcyx sparverioides Shelley, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1891),
19, 232.
Hierococcyx sparveroides Sharpe, Hand-List (1900), 2, 157;
McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 61.
Calamianes (Bourns & Worcester); Luzon (McGregor); Negros
(Whitehead); Palawan (Platen). Malay and Indian Peninsulas,
Burmese provinces, eastern Siberia, Japan, China, Borneo.
"Adult.--Above brown with a bronzy gloss, changing gradually into
gray on the back of the neck and crown; the outer tail-coverts barred
with white, and the longest ones often with darker ends and narrow
pale edges; tail with about five distinct dark bars and narrow pale
tips to the feathers, seldom much shaded with rufous; sides of the
head and chin gray, with a broad white band from the front of the
eye to the white on the throat, separating the gray of the head
from the chin; upper throat white, changing on the lower throat and
front of the chest into rufous, and the whole mottled with pale gray;
remainder of the under parts white, with the breast down to the thighs
broadly barred with dusky brown, and partially washed with rufous;
under wing-coverts white, shaded with rufous; quills dusky brown with
numerous white or buff partial bars on their inner webs. 'Bill black,
with the base of the lower mandible pale green; iris, eyelids, legs,
and claws bright gamboge-yellow.' (Davison.) Length, 394; culmen,
28; wing, 206; tail, 190; tarsus, 25.
"Immature.--Differs from the adult in the gray of the upper parts being
confined to the crown, the back of the neck being mottled with rufous,
the feathers of the back and wings more or less edged or barred with
rufous. Under surface white washed with buff; chin generally darker,
often black; throat and front of the chest broadly striped, the breast
with broad short bars to the feathers." (Shelley.)
"One adult female was obtained in the Island of Busuanga. Upper
mandible black, lower greenish; eyelids yellow; eyes orange; legs,
feet, and nails bright lemon-yellow. Length, 400; culmen, 32; wing,
223; tail, 211; tarsus, 33; middle toe with claw, 37." (Bourns and
Worcester MS.)