Cuculus honoratus Linnæus, Syst. Nat. ed. 12, (1766), 1, 169.
Eudynamis honorata Shelley, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1891), 19, 316;
Blanford, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1895), 3, 228, fig. 65 (head);
Sharpe, Hand-List, (1900), 2, 164; Oates and Reid, Cat. Birds'
Eggs (1903), 3, 121; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 62.
Palawan (Platen, Steere Exp.). Malay and Indian Peninsulas,
Burmese Provinces, Andaman Islands, Ceylon, China, Sumatra, Java,
Borneo, Flores.
"Adult male.--Entire plumage black, very strongly glossed with bluish
green. 'Iris crimson; bill pale bluish green, dusky round the nostrils;
legs and feet leaden blue.' (Legge.) Length, 386; culmen, 30; wing,
193; tail, 200; tarsus, 30.
"Adult female.--Above blackish brown, with an olive gloss; crown,
sides of the head, and back of the neck very strongly mottled with
broad white shaft-stripes, which are generally shaded toward the
forehead with rufous; back and wing-coverts spotted with white;
quills, upper tail-coverts, and tail barred with white; beneath white,
feathers of the throat with broad black sides, remainder of the under
surface of the body and the under wing-coverts with rather broad black
angular bars; under surface of the quills brown, partially barred with
white. 'Iris crimson; legs and feet plumbeous; bill greenish gray,
gape pinkish flesh-color.' (Butler.) Length, 406; culmen, 30; wing,
190; tail, 198; tarsus, 33.
"Nestling.--Entirely greenish black like the adult male.
"The scarcely full-grown birds have more or less marking on the
tail-feathers and the under surface of the quills, and have numerous
fulvous spots on the body-feathers. In more than one specimen the
breast and abdomen are thickly mottled with buff markings.
"There seems to me to be no absolute uniformity in the color of
the young birds, and some are much more spotted than others. If
Mr. Whitehead's surmise is correct, that the young female is also black
like the male, then it is possible that the less spotted nestlings are
males, which remain almost uniform till they take on the adult plumage
after their first molt, while the feathers are even more mottled,
foreshadowing the spotted dress which they are about to assume. The
plumage of the adult female also varies, and very old birds appear
to me to grow hoary, while the yellowish or reddish tinge on the head
and throat may be considered as sure signs of youth." (Shelley.)
"Whitehead insists, Ibis (1890), 46, that the Palawan species is
E. mindanensis, and not E. malayana (honorata). Blasius, however, seems
to think that he found both species among Dr. Platen's birds. Steere
identified the specimens secured by us in 1897 as E. malayana. We
secured no additional material on our present trip." (Bourns and
Worcester MS.)