AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 17 



tionary sequence from the circumstantial evidence of the contempo- 

 rary, surviving components of the genus, flavigularis may seem to be 

 closer to the original stock that came from Asia to Africa than is any 

 of its other African congeners. Actually, in its ventral hsurrmg Jlavigu- 

 laris has the pattern more narrowly and finely developed than any 

 of the Indo-Australian forms, and even suggests the finely barred 

 pattern of some species of Cacomantis (such as sonnerati). This point 

 is of suggestive interest, as one cannot wholly dispel the possibility 

 that Cacomantis, or some similar stock, may have been the remote 

 ancestor of the glossy cuckoos as a group. 



That flavigularis is a bird of the West African forest belt is, if any- 

 thing, what one might expect of a descendant of an originally south 

 Asiatic stock, as most of the Asiatic "relicts" in Africa are found in 

 precisely that area. Admittedly, this is hardly a bit of evidence in 

 itself, but it is worth mentioning because, in a case where so little of 

 the past history of a group may be sensed convincingly from tangible 

 data, even a slight corroborative suggestion is welcome. Whether it 

 represents the primordial stock closely or not, fiavigularis has remained 

 a strictly sylvan entity like its Asiatic progenitor, and like maculatus 

 and xanthorhynchus it is difficult to see, to watch, and to collect. 



We have already mentioned that C. Haas is quite obviously the 

 nearest relative to flamgularis , and the closeness of the two will be 

 shown even more in the following discussion of their plumage charac- 

 ters. Especially interesting evidence for this close relationship is 

 aiforded by the fact that occasionally Haas may produce a female 

 plumage quite similar to that of flamgularis. This is certainly not 

 frequent or usual, but it does happen. It is illustrated by a female 

 Haas in the British Museum (B.M. 78-12-31-325), ex coll. R. B. 

 Sharpe, who got it from Layard from South Africa. It is fortunate 

 that this particular specimen came from an area where no question of 

 its being flavigularis could possibly arise, thereby eliminating any 

 question as to its correct identification. This revealing example differs 

 from other young or females of Haas in having the entire underparts 

 from chin to upper abdomen and sides pale buffy, narrowly barred 

 with dusky earth-bro^\Tl, almost as in young or female flavigularis, 

 but with the wavy bars more widety spaced and with the middle of 

 the lower abdomen and the under-tail coverts whiter and less barred. 

 It has the wavy crossbars narrower than in any other of several hun- 

 dred examples of Haxis examined. It is definitely a female Haas, al- 

 though it shows a surprising trend in the direction of female or juvenal 

 flavigularis in the pattern of the underparts. On the top of the head, 

 nape, upper back, and rump it is almost uniformly dull coppery-brown, 

 the scapulars and upper wAng coverts bright green barred with cin- 

 namon as in other females of Haas. Female flavigularis usually have 



