BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 263 



Soft parts: Iris dark brown; bare space around eye slate color; 

 bill uniform slaty black; feet pale brownish gray anteriorly, flesh 

 color posteriorly; claws black. 



This specimen was shot together with a male of Cuculiis claTnosus 

 chMyheus. 



The black cuckoo reaches its northern limit in northern Ethiopia 

 and Eritrea but seems to be rather uncommon there. Thus, Erlan- 

 ger^^ found it but once — near Bakora (on the route between Harrar 

 and Adis Abeba), Hawash region; Neumann ^^ also procured but a 

 single specimen at Schenna, west Kaffa area (see under next sub- 

 species) ; Antinori secured one at Sciotalit ^^ ; and Lefebvre obtained 

 this bird in northern Tigre district. Von Heuglin's records from 

 Gin and from the Anseba Valley refer to chaly'beus. Blanford, how- 

 ever, did not see it in the last-named region, so it can not have been 

 numerous. 



In spite of all these northern records the range of the species as 

 given by Sclater ^* stops in a northern direction with southern Ethi- 

 opia. This is probably based on Bannerman's ^^ list of the specimens 

 examined by him in the British Museum, the Tring Museum, and the 

 collections of Sir Frederick Jackson and of Doctor van Someren. 



Heuglin ^^ notes that Lefevre records clamiosus from Schirre. 



The black cuckoo is not definitely known to breed anywhere in 

 the northern part of its range (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Uganda, 

 Kenya Colony, and Belgian Congo), and is known in the southern 

 part of its range only in the southern summer, October to March. 

 In Kenya Colony, Ethiopia, and the Sudan specimens have been 

 taken only from March to September. The breeding birds of Ethi- 

 opia, Kenya, Uganda, and the Congo are the form known as chalf- 

 heus. The two forms have been kept as distinct species by most 

 workers,^'^ the northern one under the name jacksoni Sharpe, but are 

 obviously geographical representatives of one specific entity. 



CUCULUS CLAMOSUS CHALYBEUS Heuglin 



Cuculus chalybeus Heuglin, Journ. f. Ornith., 18G2, p. 34 : Ain Saba Ethiopia. 



S'peci'mens collected: 



Five males and one female, Gato River near Gardula, Ethiopia, 

 March 27 to April 28, 1912. 



M Journ. f. Ornith., 1905, p. 482. 

 ==Itlem, 1904, p. 381. 



»3 Salvador!, Ann. Mus. Civ. Gonova, vol. 21, 1884, p. 94. 

 ^ Syst. Avium Ethiop., 1024, p. 180. 

 2»Ibis, 1021, p. 98. 

 3" Journ. f. Ornith., 1862, p. 35. 



3'Soe Sclater and Praed, Ibis, 1919, pp. 643-644; Bannorman, idem, 1921, pp. 91-94; 

 Syst. Avium Ethiop., 1924. p. 180, etc. 



