22 Mr. R. H. Ivy on the Nesting 



the same scene took place^ and this continued for about an 

 hour. We theu shot all three birds with one charge. The 

 Honey-guide fell at our feet, and had an egg protruding 

 from the vent, being covered with skin, probably an evagi- 

 nated portion of the lower part o£ the oviduct. Fortunately 

 the egg was unbroken ; it was very transparent and the yolk 

 showed through. In the nest itself were two of the usual 

 white eggs of the Barbet, quite fresh. 



11. Melanobucco torquatus (Dumont) ; Shelley, Cat. B. 

 xix. p. 24. 



In November 1893 I saw a pair of these birds boring 

 away at a decayed Avillow-tree overhanging a stream. 

 Beneath the tree, lying on some damp sand, were four eggs 

 of the same bird, quite fresh and obviously just deposited. 



12. Tkichol.ema leucomelas (Bodd.) ; Shelley, Cat. B. 

 xix. p. 31. 



1 found a breeding-place of this bird at Walmer, near Port 

 Elizabeth, in November 1892. It was in an old tree-trunk, 

 and was somewhat like that of Melanobucco torquatus, being 

 merely a hole about 1^ inch in diameter, running about 

 2 inches inwards, and then downwards about 6 inches. At 

 the bottom were four white eggs, resting merely on some 

 fragments of rotten wood. 



13. CoccYSTES glandarius (Linn.) ; Shelley, Cat. B. xix. 

 p. 212 ^. 



Mr. B. Campbell, of Rocklands, Fish River, brought me, 

 in December 1892, two eggs of this bird. They were of a 

 pale dull blue, with small blackish spots ; they had been 

 found in a nest of the Black Crow [Corvus capensis), along 



* [This Cuckoo breeds also in Southern Spain and Northern and North- 

 eastern Africa, where it usually selects a Magpie or Crow's nest to deposit 

 its eggs. The breeding-season in this case is in April or May. It is very 

 remarkable, therefore, to find the same bird in South Africa breeding in 

 December. Do our southern birds migrate as far as the northern breeding- 

 area, and again lay eggs in the spring of the northern hemisphere ? or do 

 they only go as far as Central Africa in April, spending our winter-season 

 there and returning south to breed in our southern spring? — W. L. S.] 



