CUCULUS INSPERATUS, Gould.
Brush Cuckoo.
Cuculus insperatus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part XIII. p. 19.
While traversing the cedar brushes of the Liverpool range on the 26th of October, 1839, my attention was attracted by the appearance of a Cuckoo, which I at first mistook for the Cuculus cineraceus, but which on examination proved to be the new species here represented; this example was the only one I ever saw living, and a single skin is all that has since been sent to me from New South Wales; it must therefore be very rare in the south-eastern portion of the continent, but it is doubtless equally as common a few degrees to the northward. At Port Essington there is a nearly allied species differing from the present in being much smaller, and in having a browner tint on the under surface; to this bird I have given the specific appellation of dumetorum; but as it closely resembles the species here represented, it will not be necessary to give a figure of it.
On comparison, this species will be found to differ from C. cineraceus, for which it might be readily mistaken, in its smaller size, in the more square form of the tail, and in that organ being destitute of white markings on the outer webs of the feathers. In its structure and colouring it will be found to depart from the true Cuculi and to approximate to the members of the genus Chalcites, and in fact to form one of the links which unite the two groups.
Head, throat and all the upper surface dark slate-grey; back and wings glossed with green; tail glossy brownish green, each feather tipped with white, and with a row of triangular-shaped white markings on the margins of the inner webs; primaries and secondaries with a patch of white on their inner webs near the base; edge of the shoulder white; under surface of the shoulder, vent and under tail-coverts rufous; remainder of the under surface grey, washed with rufous; bill black; feet olive.
The figures are of the natural size.