CUCULIDiE CENTROfUS 209 



Three eggs in the South African Museum, taken by Mr. A. D. 

 Millar at Sydenham near Durban, on October 22, are oval and 

 pure white, and measure 1-40 x 1*05. 



477. Centropus nigrorufus. Natal Coucal. 



Le Coucal noiru, Levaill. Ois. cVAfr. v, p. 78, pi. 220 (1806). 



Cuculus nigrorufus, Cuvier, Eegne Anim. i, p. 426 (1817). 



Centropus nigrorufus, Lai/ard, B. S. Afr. p. 245 (1867) ; Sharpe, P. Z. S. 



1873, p. 623 ; id. ed. Laijard's B. S. Afr: pp. 165, 810 (1876-84) ; 



Shelleij, Cat. B. M. xix, p. 357 (1891) ; id. B. Afr. i, p. 122 (1896) ; 



Marshall, Ibis, 1900, p. 253 [Mashonaland]. 



Description. Adult male. — Head, neck all round, upper tail 

 coverts and underside throughout, black ; middle of the back 

 mottled pale rufous and black ; wings rufous with white shaft 

 marks, some of the outer primary coverts barred with black, the 

 primary quills tipped with black, and the inner secondaries mottled 

 and barred with the same colour ; tail-feathers black, the central 

 pair strongly barred and tipped with pale rufous, the bars becoming 

 less distinct till the outer pair are plain black ; under wing-coverts 

 rufous. 



Iris hazel; bill, legs and feet black. 



Length 12-0 ; wing 6-10 ; tail 6-75 ; culmen 0-80 ; tarsus 1-40. 



Distribuiion. — East Africa from Witu in British east Africa to 

 Natal and perhaps Cape Colony, ranging across by the Zambesi 

 valley to Angola and Gaboon on the west. 



In South Africa this bird appears to be very rare except in 

 Mashonaland. Levaillant more than a hundred years ago procured 

 the type on the Zwart river in Knysna, but so far as I am aware 

 it has not been since obtained within the boundaries of the Colony ; 

 Wahlberg shot a specimen near Durban now in the British Museum, 

 while there are two examples in the South African Museum from 

 the Zand river in the Lydenburg district of the Transvaal, and from 

 the Leshunia river near the Victoria Falls ; recently Mr. Marshall 

 has found it not uncommon near Mazoe north-east of Salisbury. 



Habits. — Levaillant only obtained one pair of this Cuckoo, they 

 were hovering about the carcass of a buffalo which he had shot, 

 but were kept off by the crows ; only insects were found in their 

 stomachs. 



The nest has been found by Mr. Darling, whose account as 

 given by Mr. Marshall is as follows: — "On January 13 I took 

 a nest of C. nigrorufus in long and thick grass in a vlei ; the bird 

 14 voii. HI. 



