182 CUCULTD^ CUCULUS 



" On November 9, 1897, I found a nest of Cossypha caffra in 

 a neighbouring garden, containing two of the usual pinky-cream 

 eggs, one of which had been deposited only that morning. The 

 nest was only about six inches distant from another where, pre- 

 sumably, the same parents had hatched a brood in September. On 

 revisiting the nest the next day I found, in addition to the Eobin's 

 eggs, which were quite fresh, an egg of Cuculus solitarius, partly 

 incubated. 



"In December, 1898, I found another nest of Monticola rupes- 

 tris containing two eggs of the "Rock-Thrush and one of Cuculus 

 solitarius. 



" In November, 1899, I found a single egg of Cuculus solitarius 

 in a nest of the South African Stone-Chat (Pratincola torquata), 

 situated in the wall of an old kraal close to Grahamstown ; there 

 were three eggs of the Stone-Chat in the nest." 



- 0*A,,u^*-ik 



463. Cuculus clamosus. Black Cuckoo. 



Cuculus clamosus, Lath. Ind. Orn. ii, Suppl. p. 30 (1801) ; Layard, 

 B. S. Afr. p. 249 (1867) ; Gurney in Andersson's B. Damar aland, 

 p. 226 (1872) ; Sharpe, P. Z. S., 1873, p. 587 ; Buckley, Ibis, 1874 ; 

 p. 367 [BamangwatoJ ; Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. 8. Afr. pp. 150, 809 

 (1875-84) ; Oates, Matabeleland, p. 305 (1881); Shelley, Cat. B. M. 

 xix, p. 260 (1891) ; Fleck, Journ-. Ornith. 1894, p. 396 [Gt. Narna- 

 qualand] ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 124 (1896) ; Woodward Bros, and 

 Sharpe, Ibis, 1897, pp. 410, 499 [Zululand] ; Woodward Bros. Natal 

 B. p. 116 (1899) ; Alexander, Ibis, 1900, p. 109 [Zambesi Valley] ; 

 Ivy, Ibis, 1901, p. 26 [Albany Dist.] . 



Le Coucou criard, Levaill. Ois. d'Afr. v, p. 28, pis. 204-5 (1806). 



Cuculus nigricans, Swains. Zool. III. (2) i, pi. 7 (1829) ; Gurney, Ibis, 

 1859, p. 246 [Natal] . 



Description. Adult male. Above and below, black glossed with 

 dark green ; quills brown with white barring and freckling on the 

 inner web ; tail-feathers narrowly tipped with white, under tail- 

 coverts with white or rufous tips ; edge of the wing mottled black 

 and white, under wing-coverts black. 



Iris dark brown ; bill black ; legs and feet black. 



Length 12-75; wing6'90; tail 6-30; culmen 0-90; tarsus 0-75. 



The female resembles the male. An immature bird has traces 

 of rufous barring on the lower surface. 



Another young bird is described by Shelley as having the entire 

 throat and crop whitish-brown, shaded with rufous and barred with 



