CUCULID^ COCCYSTES 197 



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469. Coccystes hypopinarius. Black and Grey Cuckoo. 



Coccystes hypopinarius, Cah. & Heine, Mus. Hein. iv, p. 47 (1862) ; 

 Norman, Ibis, 1888, p. 406; Shelletj, Cat. B. M. xix, p. 220, pi. 11, 

 fig. 2 (1891) ; id. B. Afr. i, p. 123; Bendall, Ibis, 1896, p. 168 (1896) 

 [Barberton] ; Alexander, Ibis, 1900, p. 108 [Zumbo]. 



Coccystes jacobinus {nee Bodd.), Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 253 (1867) (in 

 part) ; Ayres, Ibis, 1876, p. 432, 1877, p. 342; Sharpe, ed. Layard's 

 B. S. Afr. p. 158 (1875) (in part) ; Ivy, Ibis, 1901, p. 23. 



Description. Adult. — Closely resembling C. jacobinus but with 

 the under parts a slaty-grey throughout, the sides of the neck and 

 chest being slightly streaked and suffused with black. 



Iris black ; bill, legs and feet black. 



Length about 13-75; wing 6-0; tail 7'20 ; culmen 0"85 ; tarsus 

 1-0. 



The female resembles the male. 



Distribution. — This species appears to replace the true C. 

 jacobinus in the Cape Colony and Natal, while other examples 

 appear to have been obtained in the Transvaal, the Zambesi valley 

 and Nyasaland, where the typical form also exists. As, however, 

 the differences between the two species have not been long noticed 

 it is difficult to accurately discriminate their distribution. 



The following localities are recorded : Cape Colony — Cape div. 

 January, Stellenbosch, October, and Eobertson, December (S. A. 

 Mus.), Albany (S. A. Mus. and Ivy), Eland's Post (Bt. Mus.), near 

 Aliwal North, January (Whitehead); Natal— Durban (Bt. Mus.); 

 Transvaal — Barberton, November (Eendall), Pretoria and Potchef- 

 stroom (Bt. Mus.) ; Portuguese east Africa — Zumbo, November 

 (Alexander) 



Habits. — The Black and Grey Cuckoo usually appears with the 

 first rains in September or October ; it has a loud whistle-like call 

 note specially heard after rain ; its food appears to consist chiefly 

 of hairy caterpillars. 



Col. Bowker stated to Layard that he believed he had found the 

 eggs of this bird in the nest of the Drongo {Dicrurus afer) and also 

 in that of a "Woodpecker, and further that the true parent watched 

 the foster parents to see that they did their duty by the young 

 cuckoos. 



Mr. Ivy gives the following notes : " This bird was seen by Mr. 

 Pym to leave the nest of a Bulbul {Pycnonotus tricolor) in the 

 Belmont valley near Grahamstown. On examination the nest was 

 found to contain one Cuckoo's egg (white) and two of the Bulbul's 

 (spotted with pinky-red). In November, 1894, I found a nest of 



