OCR Text |
Show 1885.] MR. F. E. BEDDARD ON THE CUCKOOS. 175 of the genera Centropus, Geococcyx, &c. ; but the three rows of feathers which form the posterior portion of the tract become separated from each other by intervals, as in Cacotnantis, before reuniting in front of the cloaca. The spinal tract is narrow in the neck, and up to a little way beyond its bifurcation, between the shoulder-blades, is strongly feathered ; the rest of the spinal tract encloses, as in other Cuckoos, a lanceolate space, and is continuous behind with a strong row of feathers running to the base of the oil-gland. Cacomantis sepulchralis.-The pterylosis of this Cuckoo is not Fig. 3. Pterylosis of Cacomantis sepulchralis. widely different from that of Cuculus. The inferior tract divides into two about halfway down the neck ; the skin lying between the rami of the mandibles is free from feathers on either side of the middle line, which is occupied by the commencement of the feather-tract, but the space thus left bare is extremely narrow. On the pectoral region the feathering is strong, about four feathers wide over the whole of the |