Cuculus javanicus Dumont, Dic. Sc. Nat. (1818), 11, 144.
Centropus javanicus Shelley, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1891), 19,
354; Sharpe, Hand-List (1900), 2, 167; Oates and Reid, Cat. Birds'
Eggs (1903), 3, 124; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 63.
Tu-la-cuc', Batan.
Bantayan (McGregor); Batan (McGregor); Bohol (Everett, McGregor);
Bongao (Everett); Calamianes (Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Cebu
(Bourns & Worcester); Leyte (Everett); Luzon (Whitehead); Mindanao
(Bourns & Worcester); Mindoro (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester,
Whitehead, McGregor, Porter); Negros (Steere Exp., Keay); Palawan
(Whitehead, Platen, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, White);
Panay (Steere Exp.); Semirara (Worcester); Siquijor (Bourns &
Worcester); Sulu (Platen, Bourns & Worcester); Tawi Tawi (Bourns
& Worcester). China, Assam, Burma, Malay Peninsula, Moluccas,
Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes.
Adult.--General color including tail black, glossed with dark
oil-green; shafts of the feathers strong and glossy black; wings
light chestnut or reddish buff; coverts and inner secondaries more
or less mottled or streaked with blackish brown, the coverts with
pale shaft-stripes; tail tipped with pale buff. Iris brown; bill
blackish; legs and feet lead-blue; nails blackish. Length, 375 to
400; a male from Mindoro measures, wing, 162; tail, 225; culmen from
base, 29; bill from nostril, 18; tarsus, 45; middle toe with claw,
44. A female from Bohol: Wing, 160; tail, 210; culmen from base, 26;
bill from nostril, 14; tarsus, 34; middle toe with claw, 39.
Young.--Upper parts seal-brown, somewhat mixed with rusty buff;
shafts of feathers on sides of head, neck, and mantle pale buff; back
blackish brown, mottled with rusty buff; upper tail-coverts greatly
lengthened, two of the feathers being fully two-thirds the length
of the rectrices, in color black glossed with green and crossed by
numerous bars of rusty buff.
The young plumage here described is usually considered to be put
on each winter even by birds that have attained the black adult
plumage. It is usually referred to as the "seasonal" or "non-breeding
plumage." Blanford, however, under the closely related Centropus
bengalensis says: "The second garb is called the winter or seasonal
plumage by most authors, but I can find no evidence that it is ever
assumed by birds that have once attained adult coloration, and there
are several winter birds in the British Museum collection with the
adult dress. The long upper tail-coverts appear peculiar to the
immature plumage." Fauna British India, Birds (1895), 3, 243.
"We record this species from Leyte and Bohol on the strength of
British Museum specimens stated in the Catalogue of Birds to have
been collected in these islands, though no mention seems to have been
made of them in the Marquis of Tweeddale's report on Mr. Everett's
collections.
"Quite common in Sulu and Tawi Tawi; not rare in the other islands
indicated. Lives in the grass in open fields. Iris very dark brown;
legs and feet blue-black; bill black. Food insects. Three males
average, 345 in length; wing, 139; tail, 180; culmen, 24; tarsus, 36;
middle toe with claw, 37. Five females, length, 368; wing, 159; tail,
199; culmen, 31; tarsus, 39; middle, toe with claw, 39." (Bourns and
Worcester MS.)