334 AVES. 



Indicator, Vaill. 



The Indicators are also inhabitants of Africa, and, as they feed 

 on honey, have become celebrated for guiding the natives to the 

 retreats of the wild bees, which they seek with loud cries. Their 

 beak is short, high, and nearly conical, like that of the Finch. Their 

 tail of twelve quills is at once slightly cuneiform, and partly forked. 

 Their singularly hard skin shields them from the stings of the 

 bees, which, being continually persecuted, sometimes kill them 

 by attacking their eyes.(l) The 



Barbacous, Vaill.(2) 



Have a conical, elongated beak, but little compressed, and slightly 

 arcuated at the end, whose base is furnished with slender feathers 

 or stiff hairs, which ally them to the Barbets.(3) 



Malcoha, Vaill. (4) 



A very stout beak, round at base, and arcuated near the point, with 

 a large naked space about the eyes. The nostrils of some(5) are 

 round, and placed near the base of the beak, in others they are nar- 

 row and situated near its edge. (6) They are natives of Ceylon, and 

 as it is said, live chiefly on fruit. 



It is probable that we should distinguish those species in which the 

 beak is not so stout, and which have scarcely any of the naked space 

 about the eyes.(7) 



ScYTHROPSj Lath. 

 The beak still longer and stouter than that of Malcoha, and 



(1) Cuculus indicator, Vaill. Afr. 241; minor, Nob. Id. 24; albirostris, T, Col. 

 2&7. Vieill. has adopted this name and genus, Gal. 45. 



(2) Barhacou, composed of iarfiei and cuckoo. From it Vieill. has made his g-enus 

 MoNAsiA, Gal. 36. 



(3) Cuculus tranquilhis, Enl. 512; Spix, 41, 2; C. tenehrosus, Enl. 505, and 

 Col. 323, 2; C. rufalbinus, T. Col. 323; Monasa personata, Vieill. Gal. 36, or 

 Bucco alhifrons, Spix, 41. 



N.B. We should also observe, that the Cue. paradisxus, Briss. IV, pi. xiv, A, 1, 

 is the Drongo de Paradis [Lanius malaharicus), and that the Cue. sinensis. Id. lb. A, 

 2, is the Corvus erythrorhynclios. These two remai'ks are from Le Vaillant, who 

 has done more to elucidate the history of the Cuckoos than any other naturalist. 



(4) Vieill. calls the Malcoha, PiicENicopHy-Eus, Gal. 37. 



(5) The Malcoha Eouverdin, Vaill. Afr. 223. 



(6) The Malcoha, Id., 224; or Cue. pyrrocephalus, Forster, 3, Vieill. Gal. 37. 



(7) The Malcoha a becpeini {Phoenicophaeus calyorhynchus, T.) Col. 349; Pha- 

 ni. javanicus, Horsf., Jav. 



