416 Mr. C. H. B. Grant on a Collection of 



darker especially on the breast, but the difference being so 

 slight, and not altogether constant, does not warrant 

 separation. 



181. Clamator glandarius. Great Spotted Cuckoo. 



Cuculus glandariuslAun. Syst. Nat. 10th ed. 1758, p. Ill: 

 Northern Africa. 



a. ? ad. 30 miles N.W. of Baringo, 2800 ft. Dec. 29. 



Total length in flesh : 14^ inches. Wing: 187 mm. 



This specimen is fully adult, is in rather worn dress and 

 is starting to moult. 



[Trides brown ; bill black, lower half of lower mandible 

 bluish ; legs and toes plumbeous. Only two or three of 

 this Cuckoo were seen in British East Africa.] 



The small wing-measnrement of this bird has induced 

 me to measure the whole series of this Cuckoo in the 

 British Museum collection, to see whether or no the south 

 African bird which is reported to breed there (c/. Sclater, • 

 Fauna of S. Afr. vol. iii. 1903, p. 194) is not really a 

 separable race, wintering, as suggested by Sclater, in central 

 Africa. The appended measurements show that the bird 

 that breeds in southern Europe and Asia runs in the maxi- 

 mum larger than the maximum of south African specimens, 

 but in the minimum runs well into the southern bird, thus 

 precluding any separation into two subspecies. The months 

 of capture also show that this Cuckoo occurs usually in 

 southern Africa during the northern winter, so that the 

 somewhat questionable theory of double breeding must be 

 for the present accepted. 



The wing-measurements and months, as recorded in the 

 comparatively few specimens that are dated, are as follows: — 



South Africa (King William's Town, Orange E-iver 

 Colony, Transvaal, and Damaralaud). 

 cJad. 208-180, juv. 189; ? ad. 202-181, juv. 196-188 mm. 

 October, November, December, January, and March. 



West Africa (Gambia, Liberia, Gold Coast Colony, and 

 Nigeria) . 

 J ad. 207-198, juv. 195; ? juv. 207-189 mm. 

 September, December, February, April, and June. 



