The Oriental Cuckoo or Horsfields Cuckoo (Cuculus optatus) is a bird belonging to the genus Cuculus in the cuckoo family Cuculidae. It was formerly classified as a subspecies of the Himalayan Cuckoo (C. saturatus) with the name Oriental Cuckoo used for the combined species. Differences in voice and size suggest that they should be treated as a separate species. The binomial name Cuculus horsfieldi has often been used instead of Cuculus optatus but is now usually considered to be a junior synonym.
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Famous quotes containing the words oriental and/or cuckoo:
“Behold the difference between the Oriental and the Occidental. The former has nothing to do in this world; the latter is full of activity. The one looks in the sun until his eyes are put out; the other follows him prone in his westward course.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The finch, the sparrow, and the lark,
The plainsong cuckoo grey,
Whose note full many a man doth mark
And dares not answer nay.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)