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



To be quite sure that a possible printer's error in Teget- 

 meier's reprint of Boddaert's Table and Sherborn's Index 

 Anira. would account for the fact that all works, including 

 the 'Catalogue of Birds/ 189 1 , p. 285, and Reichenow's Vogel 

 Afr. vol. ii. 1902, p. 94, quote Boddaert's name as CucuJus 

 cuprens, I have examined the original copy of Boddaert's 

 Table in the Banksian Library, now in the British Museum, 

 and find that the name is spelt as in Tegetmeier's reprint, 

 i. e. Cuculus capt'ius. 



The " Cuculus cupreus Bodd." of authors being non- 

 existent, the name can no longer be confounded with the 

 Golden Cuckoo, and has to be disposed of elsewhere. 



Investigation shows that the first time the name '^ cuj)reus" 

 occurs is in G. Shaw's ' Museum Leverianum,' 1792, p. 157, 

 under the generic term Cuculus ; see also Sherborn's Index 

 Anim. p. 272. 



The description and plate given by Shaw undoubtedly 

 refers to the Emerald. Cuckoo, and moreover to the bird 

 that has the under tail-coverts uniformly coloured with the 

 abdomen. 



Mr. Bannerman, in 'The Ibis,' 1912, pp. 244-247, has 

 not only gone thoroughly into the synonymy of the Emerald 

 Cuckoo, but has shown that two distinct races exist : i. e., 

 Chrysococcyx smaragdineus Swains., confined to the north 

 and ranging from Senegal across to Abyssinia, and C. s. 

 intermedius {Chrysococcyx interniedius) Hartl. (Birds W. Afr. 

 1857, p. 191 : Gaboon), which breeds in South Africa and 

 winters as far north as Gaboon and perhaps Uganda [cf. 

 Bannerman, op. cit.). It is unfortunate that Hartlaub 

 should have given his type locality so far north, but it will 

 probably be found that in its winter quarters the South 

 African race overlaps the northern form. The birds found 

 on the islands of Principe and San Thome belong to the 

 northern form (cf. Bannerman, Ibis, 1914, p. 616, & 1915, 

 p. 107). 



Shaw gives the comprehensive locality of Africa, but as 

 his name undoubtedly refers to the bird with the yellow 

 under tail-coverts, it applies to the west coast form (cf. 



