164 BIEDS OF EGYPT. 



agree with him in considering that the present species does 

 not come into Egypt, and have in consequence not described 

 its plumage. 



141. Centropus ^gtptius (Gm.). Lark-heeled Cuckoo. 



(Plate VI.) 



Von Heughn (Orn. N. O. Afr. p. 796) considers C. cegypi'ms, 

 Gm., to be synonj'mous with C. senegalensis (Briss.); but this 

 latter name cannot hold good, as it has been given by Linnaeus to 

 the West- African form. I have in my collection four skins 

 of C. (Egyptius from Egypt, and one of C. senegalensis from 

 West Africa, and they certainly are distinct species. C. 

 (sggptius is, I believe, confined to North-eastern Africa, and is 

 most abundant in Lower Egypt. 



In habits it is lazy, and prefers creeping among the thick 

 beds of cane and the upper branches of the more densely 

 foliaged trees to showing itself in the open, and is con- 

 sequently not very common in collections. 



Top of the head, ear-coverts, and nape brownish-black 

 with an oily green reflection, the shafts of the feathers stout 

 and polished ; back, scapulars, and wing-coverts duU brown ; 

 primaries and secondaries bright rufous, tipped with brown ; 

 tail and upper tail-coverts brownish black, with metallic 

 green reflections ; under surface of the body pale straw- 

 colour, the shafts of the feathers very stout and glossy. Legs 

 and beak black, irides red. 



Entire length 18 inches; culmen TS; wing, carpus to 

 tip, 7 to 8 ; tarsus 1-7. 



