CUCKOOS 289 



tipped with white, giving a spotted appearance to this 

 region ; throat and upper breast pale ochre-yellow, rest 

 of under- parts white. Length, 14| inches. 



It has a harsh cry and feeds on caterpillars and insects. 

 Some years it is plentiful in the Beaufort West and Albany 

 Divisions of the Cape ; at other times it does not put in an 

 appearance at all. It commonly utilises the nesting-places 

 of the Eed-winged and Pied Starlings, and the nest of the 

 Black Crow. It favours certain nests each year ; when the 

 Cuckoos arrive these nests will invariably be found to con- 

 tain an egg or two, while other nests of the same species 

 close by will not be noticed by them. This is the only kind 

 of cuckoo we know of with instances of two young in a single 

 nest {vide Fig. 158), or which occasionally permit the young 

 of the foster-parents to live ; we have found a young 

 Spotted Cuckoo and a young Bed-wing just ready to fly, 

 in the same nest. The egg of this Cuckoo is of a pale dull 

 blue spotted with black. 



The Black and White Cuckoo (Coccystes jacobinus) is 

 glossy black with greenish reflections above ; a white band 

 across the wing, below white washed with pale buff. 



The exact range of this bird within our limits is uncertain, 

 it having been so frequently confused with the succeeding 

 species. A. D. Millar found the white egg of this species on 

 three occasions in the nest of the Fiskal Shrike. 



The Black and Grey Cuckoo (Coccystes hypopiiiarius) 

 closely resembles the foregoing bird, but has the under-parts 

 of a slate-grey colour, the sides of the neck and breast 

 suffused and slightly streaked with black. Length, 13| to 

 13| inches. 



Its range seems to be fairly general in South Africa, as 

 we have procured specimens in the Beaufort West and 



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