328 Mr. E. Symonds on Birds 



There is nearly always a pair of these Kingfishers on the 

 river within the town of Kroonstad, and there is a large flat 

 stone just in the water at the bathing-place, where they may 

 be seen in the early morning killing crabs, or perhaps break- 

 ing their shells by beating them vigorously on the stone ; 

 the stomach of the specimen sent contained a whole crab 

 with the shell broken in pieces, and the oviduct contained 

 eggs that would have been laid in a few days. 



17. IJpuPA AFRicANA, Bcchst. South- African Hoopoe. 

 This species builds here every year ; it is very common and 



. very tame. 



18. Rhinopomastes CYANOMELAs(Vieill.).' Scimitar-billed 

 Wood Hoopoe. 



These birds are rather plentiful in the bush along the 

 river. 



19. Chrysococcyx cupreus (Bodd.). Didric Cuckoo. 

 This Cuckoo is very common here, arriving in October and 



departing in March. 



In the summer of 1884-85 some Sparrows built a nest 

 and reared their young in a hole under the eaves of my 

 house ; they had laid for a second time, when one day my 

 wife told me our Sparrows had been very noisy and in a great 

 state over something, but we forgot it till on a subsequent 

 day my wife again called my attention to a queer looking 

 bird in the Sparrow^s nest which the Sparrows were feeding, 

 and which, on getting up to the nest, I found to be a young 

 Golden Cuckoo ready to fly. 



[Mr. Symonds has sent this young Cuckoo, which was 

 taken from the nest in the month of January; the upper 

 portions of its plumage resemble those of the adult male, 

 except that it is without any tinge of copper-colour on the 

 back, and the white markings on the sides and centre of the 

 pileum are less developed ; the last-named white mark is, 

 however, a variable character in the adult birds. On the 

 imder surface the white plumage is profusely intermingled 

 with dark metallic-green spots, which on the flanks assume 

 the form of transverse bars, and on the cheeks of longitudinal 



