Cuculus saturatus Hodgson, Jour. As. Soc. Bengal (1843), 12, 942;
Sharpe, Hand-List (1900), 2, 158; Oates and Reid, Cat. Birds'
Eggs (1903), 3, 114; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 61.
Cuculus intermedius Shelley, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1891), 19, 252.
Cuculus canoroides Blasius, Ornis (1888), 6 (of reprint); Jour. für
Ornith. (1890), 145.
Mindanao (Platen); Palawan (Platen). Eastern Siberia, Indian
Peninsula, Andaman Islands, Malay Archipelago, Burmese provinces,
northeastern Australia, Japan, China, New Guinea, New Britain.
"Adult male.--Very similar to C. canorus, but smaller, with the bill
shorter and stouter. The plumage differs in the upper parts being
of a deeper and more blue-gray, the breast and under tail-coverts
more washed with buff, and the bars on the body black, broader and
more sharply defined than in C. canorus. 'Bill above blackish, below
greenish; gape and mouth inside deep orange; eyelids bright yellow;
iris stone-color; legs dull yellow; claws pale.' (Cripps.) Length,
325; culmen, 23; wing, 188; tail, 160; tarsus, 18.
"Adult female.--Differs only in plumage from the male in having the
base of the throat shaded with buffish rufous, as is the case in
C. canorus. Length, 292; culmen, 18; wing, 188; tail, 152; tarsus, 18.
"Nestling.--General plumage above blackish brown, with narrow terminal
white margins to the feathers, which margins are broadest on the wings
and tail; the white nuchal patch so characteristic of C. canorus
is indicated by three white feathers; a few rufous partial bars on
the wings and tail; chin and throat blackish brown, the feathers of
the latter with very narrow whitish terminal edges; remainder of the
under surface of the body blackish brown and white in broad bars of
even width. Length, 127; wing, 94.
"Young nearly full-grown.--Differs from C. canorus at this stage in
being much blacker, in generally having no white feathers on the nape,
and in the greater breadth of the black bars on the throat and breast,
which are seldom narrower than the white space between them.
"Rufous phase.--Compared with the rufous phase of C. canorus, it
is darker, the dark bars being broader and blacker; lower back and
upper tail-coverts barred with black like the crown; tail with very
distinct black bars forming angles at the shafts of the feathers;
under surface of the body similarly colored, but much more broadly
barred with black than in C. canorus. Length, 282; culmen, 22; wing,
178; tail, 155; tarsus, 18." (Shelley.)
Genus PENTHOCERYX Cabanis, 1862.
"This genus resembles Cacomantis in structure and size, the only
structural distinctions being that the bill is much stouter and
broader up to the tip, which is blunt when seen from above, and that
the tail-feathers become narrower behind instead of remaining of the
same breadth. The wing is shaped as in Cacomantis, the primaries only
exceeding the secondaries by one-third the length." (Blanford.)