176 cuculid.t: cuculus 



Mr. Marshall describes a young bird as having all the feathers 

 of the head and back broadly barred at their tips with greyish or 

 buffish-white and the sides of the face and entire throat barred like 

 the abdonnen, except that the bars are closer ; there was also a 

 large nape spot of pure white, perhaps a sport. 



Iris brown ; upper mandible including nostrils blackish, lower 

 mandible blackish at tip, the base yellow ; feet pale yellow. 



Distrihiit'ion. — ^The South African Cuckoo is found in South 

 Africa only in the summer months from October to March ; it has 

 not been definitely recorded from Cape Colony and is rare in Natal, 

 but becomes commoner in the Trarlsvaal, Bechuanaland, German 

 territory and Ehodesia. During the cold weather this Cuckoo 

 appears to be spread over the greater part of tropical Africa north of 

 the Zambesi. It has been obtained at Kavirondo, near Victoria 

 Nyanza, in March by Neumann, at Lado on the upper Nile in April 

 by Emin Pasha, in the Niam-Niam country in September by Bohn- 

 doff, and at Witu, in British east Africa in May, by Jackson. 



The following are the South Africa localities : Natal — near 

 Durban and Umfolosi valley (Woodward) ; Orange Eiver Colony — 

 Modder river, near Bloemfontein, October (S. A. Mus.) ; Transvaal 

 — Zand river in Lydenburg, November (Francis in S. A. Mus.); 

 Bechuanaland — Meathly river near Bamangwato, in October 

 (Buckley), Kanye, January (Ayres) ; Ehodesia — Umfuli river, 

 October (Ayres), near Salisbury in spring (Marshall) ; German 

 south-west Africa — Gt. Namaqualand, Otjimbinque, March, 

 Ondonga, January (Andersson), Omaruru, February (Eriksson). 



Habits. — This cuckoo seems to be found about small bushes and 

 trees in the open country ; it is shy and restless, flying from one 

 tree to another with a rapid and somewhat zig-zag flight. The 

 note is somewhat like that of the European bird but can easily be 

 distinguished, as the two syllables " koo-koo " are on the same note. 

 Ayres states that they arrive in Mashonaland about the middle 

 of September and may sometimes be seen in threes and fours 

 chasing one another, in which case they are less shy and often come 

 within range. In consequence probably of their resemblance to a 

 hawk they are frequently mobbed by small birds. Levaillant is the 

 only author who has noticed anything in regard to their breeding 

 habits, he states that only one egg is deposited in the nest of a Jan 

 Fredrik (Cossypha caffra), Coryphee [Erytliroinjgia coryjyhmcs) , 

 Fiscal [Lanhis coUaris), or BsickaMiri [Laniarius hakhakiri), and that 

 this is olive-grey dotted with red. 



