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.