274 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



in the Sagon River specimen it seems as though these feathers are 

 Juvenal ones which are not shed in the postjuvenal molt, but are 

 retained throughout the immature plumage. 



Mearns recorded seeing four of these cuckoos on the Sagon River, 

 June 3-6, and two at Turturo, June 15-17. 



LAMPROMORPHA CAPRIUS (Boddaert) 



Cuoulus capHus Boddaekt, Tabl. PI. Enlum., p. 40, No. 657, 1783: Cape of 

 Good Hope. 



Speciinens collected: 



Female adult, Gato River near Gardula, Ethiopia, April 15, 1912. 



Male immature, Turturo, Ethiopia, June 16, 1912. 



The didric cuckoo occurs throughout Africa from Ethiopia, Erit- 

 rea, Bogosland, southern Sudan, the Lake Chad district, Cameroon, 

 Northern Nigeria, Sierre Leone, and Gambia south to the Cape of 

 Good Hope. The species varies greatly in size, and it has been sug- 

 gested that the birds of the northwestern part of the range are dis- 

 tinct from the others. Hartert ^^ separated the Senegal birds on the 

 basis of smaller size (wing, male, 108-112 as against 118-121 milli- 

 meters in South African birds; female, 110-117 as against 124^125 

 millimeters in South African specimens), and revived for them 

 Heine's name chrysochlorus. Bannerman ^^ and Sclater ^° both inde- 

 pendently concluded that Hartert was mistaken, as their study of 

 the series in the British Museum refuted the decision reached by the 

 latter's study of the material at Tring. Roberts ^^ submitted meas- 

 urements of South African birds which upheld the findings of 

 Sclater and Bannerman. Gyldenstolpe," on the other hand, agreed 

 with Hartert and recognized chrysochlorus. Recently Grote ^^ has 

 found that the characters of chrysochlorus are not constant, and 

 although using that name for his birds from the grasslands of north- 

 ern Cameroon, he admits that the race is not well defined. 



In the present connection I have examined and measured some 50 

 birds from South Africa, Tanganyika Territory, Kenya Colony, 

 Uganda, Belgian Congo, Ethiopia, Cameroon, and Liberia, and as 

 far as the material goes, the only possible conclusion seems to be to 

 consider chrysochlorus as a synonym of caprius. This is based, not 

 on the examination of Senegalese birds, but on the fact that birds 

 from elsewhere (South and East Africa) present measurements which 



«8Nov. Zool., vol. 28, 1921, p. 100. 



•» Idem, vol. 29, 1922, pp. 416-417, and Revue Zool. Afr., vol. 10, 1922, p. 128. 



"> Bull. Brit. Oin. CI., vol. 42, 1922, pp. 118-119. 



" AiiD. Trans. Mus., vol. 10, 1924, p. 82. 



" Kungl. Sv. Vet.-Akad. Handler., 1924, p. 249. 



"Journ. f. Ornith., 1925, p. 83. 



