S<S On the ^Mdijicafion o/' the (Jenvs (."hrysococcyx. 



nestling, when only half-grown, quite filled the nest, and 

 must have sorely tried the untortiniate foster-parents in their 

 endeavours to appease its voracious appetite ; whenever the 

 nest was approached the young bird would raise itself with 

 beak widely distended clamouring for food, with loud cries. 

 It finally flew from the nest (in less than a fortnight) a 

 typical young Didric. In the Uitenhage, Grahamstown 

 (CO.), Bloemfontein and Springfontein Districts (O.R.C.), 

 this species is fairly plentiful, and in the Pretoria District 

 they are very common ; in all those localities the usual host 

 is the ordinary Cape Sparrow (Passer arcuatus), the next 

 commonest being the Masked Weaver [Hyphantornis^. The 

 young at first have a bright coral bill, which turns to a 

 salmon tint and finally becomes the blackish and horn-colour 

 of the fully adult bird. They assume the brilliant metallic 

 colouring of the adult before they leave the nest, differing 

 only in those particulars as enumerated in Sclater's ' Fauna 

 S. A.' Birds, vol. iii. — In January 1906, at Koonap, near 

 Beaufort, CO., seven young Cuckoos were taken from the 

 nests of the (-ape Sparrow and the Spotted-backed Weaver 

 ( /Ii/jJitniforriis spUonotus). Here, again, no single instance 

 can be recorded where an egg differed from the ordinary 

 " Sparrow '^ or " Weaver " types. There was one notable clutch 

 of six (the usual number is three or four) presumed Sparrow 

 eggs — four dark and two light coloured ones (which latter 

 Avere much like the ordinary lighter type of S] arrow egg). 

 On blowing the " light " eggs one was found to contain a 

 young bird, which had the swollen nostrils characteristic of 

 Cuckoos. The embryo Sparrows were, on the other hand, 

 without these swollen nostrils, and were also snudler than the 

 embryo Cuckoo. — On Plate II. fig. 2 will be seen a young 

 Didric Cuckoo in the nest of a Cape Sparrow, with the male 

 foster-parent perched above the nest. This jihotograph was 

 taken at Koonap River. — On the 31st December, 1905, a 

 female of C. cupreus was shot on the banks of the Crocodile 

 Biver, north of (*onnnando-nek in the Magaliesberg Range, 

 Transvaal. She, with her mate, was flying about the trees 

 containing a colony of nesting Shelley's Weavers (llyphant- 



