244 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



been cognisant of their habitat at the time he described them, as he has 

 actually in one instance given the Malagash name. They are as 

 follows : 



Genus COUA, Cuvier. 



Bill moderate, with the culmen more or less curved, and 

 the sides compressed to the tip, which is entire ; the lateral 

 margins curved, and the gonys long and ascending ; nostrils 

 basal, sunk in a broad short groove, with the opening 

 anterior, linear, and oblique ; wings moderate, and much 

 rounded, with the fifth, sixth, and seventh quills equal and 

 longest ; tail long, broad, and much rounded on the sides ; 

 tarsi longer than the middle toe, and covered in front with 

 broad scales ; toes unequal, and armed with moderate, com- 

 pressed, curved, acute claws. 



481. Coua Cristata. (Linn.) PL Enl. 589 ; Cucu- 

 lus Cristatus, Linn. ; Le Coua, Le Vail., No. 217 ; 

 Serisomus Cristatus, Sw. ; Cuculus Madagascariensis 

 Cristatus, Bris. ; Shaw, VoL IX., Pt. 1, p. 118. 



HEAD and upper parts of body, ash- colour, inclining to green ; 

 throat and fore part of neck cinereous ; lower part of neck 

 and breast greenish ; belly and sides whitish, with a rufous 

 tinge ; under tail-coverts white ; thighs white, marked with 

 a band of light ash-colour; quills pale- green, with a 

 blue and violet gloss ; beneath cinereous ; tail cinereous ; 

 lateral tail-feathers tipped with white, the two middle tail- 

 feathers longest. Length, 14". 



Le Vaillant affirms that he found this species in South Africa ; but 

 does not indicate the locality. Sundevall doubts the fact, the bird 

 being an inhabitant of Madagascar. 



482. Coua Coerulea. (Linn.) GUV, VOL 2, 458,' 



PI. Enl. 295, f. 2; Polophilus Cceruleus, Shaw, Vol. 



IX., Pt. 1, p. 56 ; Le Coua-tait-sou, Le Vail., No. 218 ; 



Cuculus Ccerulosus, Linn. 



GENERAL colour, beautiful blue-green, changing in certain 

 lights to violet ; colours of female less vivid. Length, 14". 

 " Forests of Kaffraria " (Le Vaillant) ; " Tantummodo incola Mada- 

 gascarise" (Sundevall). 



Genus LEPTOSOMFS, Vieil. 



Bill about the length of the head, robust ; upper, mandible 

 curved, notch near the tip ; gonys straight ; nostrils oblong, 

 oblique ; the margins elevated, naked, and placed towards the 



