187 



GREEN-BANDED CUCKOO. 



Chalcites auratus, LESSON. 



Golden-green ; beneath white ; head, wings, and lateral tail- 

 covers, striped with white ; flanks and inner wing-covers 

 with transverse green bars. 



Cuculus auratus, And. Coucou Didric, Le Vaill. Ois. tfAf. 

 v. pi. 210,211. 



THERE is, in the hotter parts of Africa, a small race 

 of Cuckoos, known at once by their diminutive size 

 and by the rich golden-green of their plumage. They 

 do not differ, however, from the genuine Cuckoos 

 in their habits, as Le Yaillant assures us that they 

 commit to other birds the rearing of their young. 

 Although Africa appears to be their metropolis, their 

 range extends eastward to the Indian Islands and 

 southward as far as New Holland, each of which 

 localities have furnished us with one species. To 

 this group, which happens to be a perfectly natural 

 one (the tenuirostral sub-genus of Cuculus\ we re- 

 tain the proposed name of Chalcites ; and we shall 

 now describe the most common species, which has 

 hitherto been supposed peculiar to the Cape. Four 

 specimens, however, received from Senegal, shows 

 that its range extends to Western Africa. 



The whole of the upper plumage (except the 



