CUCULID^E COCCYSTES 195 



face of a krantz, twelve feet from the ground. The nest, which 

 was cup-shaped and made of fibres and roots supported on a mud 

 base, contained a young Great Spotted Cuckoo. I kept this bird 

 in a large well-lighted room, feeding it on larvae and chopped meat. 

 It developed its feathers and began to fly about two weeks after I 

 found it. It resembled the adult bird ; except that the grey of 

 the back was much darker and the buff of the chest more intense. 

 The bird became very tame, flying to my shoulder on my calling 

 to it, and often taking journeys outside my room. 



" In April it became very restless, dashing against the walls and 

 windows, and finally died about the middle of the month. 



" I have seen a pair of old birds of this species with five young 

 all flying together late in February. I believe that the old birds 

 collect their broods previous to migrating." 



In Spain the Magpie (Pica rustica) is usually selected as foster 

 parent ; in Somaliland Mr. Lort Philips found eight eggs of this 

 parasitical bird in the same nest as four of a crow (Corvus affinis). 

 The cuckoo takes the egg in her bill and after placing it in the nest 

 often ejects an egg of the foster parent to make room for her own. 

 The egg is pale green streaked and spotted with russet and dull 

 lilac, measuring 1-2 x 0'96. 



Judging from these observations of Mr. Ivy we must conclude 

 that the Great Spotted Cuckoo, like the Bee-Eater (Merops apiaster), 

 either breeds twice a year in its northern and southern homes 

 respectively, or that the South African birds only migrate to us 

 during the summer and pass our southern winter somewhere in 

 central Africa. 



468. Coccystes jacobinus. Black and White Cuckoo. 



Cuculus jacobinus, Bodd. Tail PI Enl. p. 53 (1783). 



Cuculus melanoleucos, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i, p. 416 (1788). 



Le Coucou Edolio femelle, Levaill. Ois. d'Afr. v, p. 39, pi. 208 (1806). 



( )xylophus melanoleucus, Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 253 (1867) (part) ; 



Aijres, Ibis, 1871, p. 261 [Potchef stroom] . 

 Oxylophus jacobinus, Gurney in Andersson's B. Damaraland, p. 225 



(1872). 

 Coccystes jacobinus, Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1873, p. 597; Buckley, Ibis, 



1874, p. 367 [Limpopo] ; Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. S. Afr. pp. 153, 



810 (1875-84) (part) ; Shelley, Ibis, 1882, p. 246 [Bamangwato] ; 



Hohib d Pelz. Orn. Siid-Afr. p. 165 (1882) ; Butler, Feilden, and 

 , Zool 1882, p. 207 ; Symonds, Ibis, 1887, p. 329 [Kroonstad] ; 



