CUCULID^E. 241 



groove ; the wings long and pointed ; the tail moderate and 

 eniarginated ; the tarsi very short, and covered with trans- 

 verse, broad scales ; the toes unequal, and the outer anterior 

 toe the longest ; the claws moderate and strong. 



Genus INDICATOR, Vieillot. 



Bill more or less short, and broad- at the base, with the 

 culmen curved, and the sides compressed to the tip, which is 

 entire ; the lateral margins nearly straight, the gonys 

 moderate, and ascending ; the nostrils lateral, and placed in a 

 membranous groove, with the opening linear, and near the 

 culmen ; wings long and pointed, with the first quill nearly 

 as long as the third, fourth, and fifth, which are equal and 

 longest ; tail moderate, emarginated in the middle, and 

 rounded on the sides ; tarsi shorter than the outer anterior 

 toe, and covered with broad scales ; toes unequal, the outer 

 anterior toe the longest, the anterior pair united at their 

 base ; the claws moderate, compressed, and curved. 



477. Indicator Major, Steph. et Vieil.; Indi- 

 cator Levaillantii, Leadb. ; /. Maculatus, G. R. Gray ; 

 Indicator Flavicollis, Swain., W. Af., 2, p. 198 ; Le 

 Grande Indicateur, Le Vail., No. 241. 



GENERAL colour above, brown, with a tinge of yellow on the 

 forehead ; ear-covers whitish, and beneath them a dark-brown 

 line ; chin, throat, and neck, yellow, fading into white on the 

 sides, belly, and vent ; thighs immaculate. The tail, as in 

 I. Variegatus, consists of twelve feathers, thus marked : first 

 centre pair all brown ; second pair following, brown, with 

 outer half of the inner web white ; the three outer pair, with 

 the tip and outer lower portion of the outer web, brown ; the 

 outer pair very short. Size similar to that of /. Variegatus. 



Le Vaillant found this species and I. Variegatus, which he mistook 

 for the female, all along the South-Eastern Coast, as far as Kaffraria. 

 I have received it from Messrs. Atmore and Cairncross, killed at 

 Swellendam and George. Le Yaillant states they build in holes of 

 trees, and lay four white eggs. 



In November, 1865, while at Tygerhoek, on the River Zonder End, I 

 shot a specimen clinging to the upright branch of a tree like a wood- 

 pecker. I subsequently saw a single bird at the entrance of Cogman's 

 Kloof in December. I fancy it is pretty generally distributed through- 

 out the colony. 



