CUCULID^ COCCYSTES 199 



have white tips ; the under surface is washed with brown on the 

 throat and thighs, and the dark centres to the tail-feathers are but 

 irregularly indicated. 



Distribution. — Levaillant's Cuckoo appears to be found through- 

 out the Ethiopian region, from the Gambia and Abyssinia south- 

 wards. In South Africa it occurs as a rule only in the summer 

 months, from October to March, but in Nyasaland in both January 

 and June ; again in Abyssinia it was met with by Blanford in 

 July, and was obviously breeding ; it is probably a partial migrant. 



It has only once been recorded from the Colony where it is 

 obviously very rare, but seems to be pretty common in Natal, the 

 Transvaal, and other parts of South Africa, as shown by the follow- 

 ing list of localities : — Cape Colony — Swellendam (Layard) ; Natal — 

 Weenen, March (Bt. Mus.), KHp river district and Umfolosi valley 

 (Woodward) ; Transvaal — Lydenburg district, April (Francis in 

 S. A. Mus.), June (Bt. Mus.), Eustenburg, November, January, 

 February (Ayres) ; Bechuanaland — Kanye (Bxton) ; Ehodesia — 

 Tati, October (Oates), Pandamatenka, January (Holub), Salisbury, 

 December (Marshall) ; German south-west Africa — Otjimbinque, 

 November (Andersson), Omaruru, February (Eriksson), Okavango, 

 September (Andersson) ; Portuguese east Africa — Zumbo, November 

 (Alexander). 



Habits. — Levaillant's Cuckoo seems nowhere a very plentiful 

 bird, it appears in spring in November just before the rains ; it is 

 usually seen in pairs and is shy and retiring. The Woodwards 

 found it partial to the bushy banks of streams and rivers, where its 

 loud cry is often heai'd, which, like that of the English Cuckoo, is 

 supposed to indicate the time for sowing and planting the crops 

 among the Zulus of Natal. It feeds on cockroaches, worms, and 

 termites, and appears to be specially fond of large, hairy cater- 

 pillars ; it is sometimes mobbed by small birds. Nothing is known 

 of its breeding habits in South Africa. 



471. Coccystes serratus. Black- crested Cuckoo. 



Cuculus serratus, Sparrman, Mus. Carls, i, pi. Ill (1789) ; Grill, K. 



Vet. Alad. Handl. StoMi. ii, no. 10, p. 43 (1858). 

 Le Coucou Edolio male, Levailt. Ois. d'Afr. v, p. 39, pi. 207 (1806). 

 Cuculus edolius, Cuv. Eegne Anim. i, p. 425 (1817). 

 Oxylophus serratus, Ayres, Ibis, 1859, p. 246 [Natal] ; id. Ihis, 1869, 



p. 297 [Potchefstrooin] ; Pclzeln, Novara Eeisc, Vogel, p. 103 (1869) 



[Cape division]. 



