Mr. Layard's 'Birds of South Africa.' 163 



Some interesting particulars are recorded (Naumannia, 1857, 

 pp. 109, 110) by Vierthaler of a bird of this species which was 

 obtained by him during his journey through Sennaar. This 

 individual was a solitary nesthng, found by one of tlie tra- 

 veller's attendants in the " roomy hollow of a mimosa." It was 

 reared by Vierthaler on raw meat, and was preserved alive for 

 some time during his boat-voyage on the Blue Nile and sub- 

 sequent residence in the town of Chartum. In his account of 

 its habits in captivity, the Doctor remarks that " it never left the 

 barge ; and if put ashore, it soon returned to its old place. It 

 entered into friendly relations with a Monkey which was fastened 

 by its side, and allowed itself to be kissed by the Monkey, and 

 to have its feathers examined ; frequently, indeed, the Monkey 

 pulled the bird's head unmercifully down to him, pressed it into 

 his lap, and violently forced its bill open, without the bird 

 showing the least concern about it. Even at Chartum, where 

 the bird walked about the courtyard unrestrained, it paid a daily 

 visit to the IMonkey, and they carried on their sport together for 

 hours. There were several Monkeys tied up in the yard ; but 

 the bird well knew its friend, and never went to any of the others. 

 This friendship continued until the death of the bird." 



Three fine specimens of this Hornbill are now living in the 

 menagerie of the Zoological Society of London ; and, judging 

 from them, and from a fourth lately dead, it would seem that 

 the scarlet colouring of the throat is peculiar to the adult 

 male, the throat of the adult female being of a dull dark blue. 



493. Chalcites AURATUS (Gmel.). Didric-Cuckoo. 



j\Ir. Ayres has recently sent the egg of this Cuckoo to Mr. 

 Tristram, from the Transvaal, accompanied with the following 

 note : — " This bird is here during the summer months, disap- 

 pearing in the autumn ; it lays its eggs in some other bird's nest." 

 Of course the " summer months " here referred to are the months 

 of the South-African summer, which must be borne in mind by 

 English readers. Mr. Tristram informs me that the egg above 

 mentioned is very like some of the lighter-coloured eggs of the 

 British House-Sparrow, and also very like the egg of the Great 

 Reed- Warbler, Calamoherpe arundinacea (Linn.), from which. 



