CUCKOOS. 13 



about it were scattered seven more. He writes that " in the finding of some of the 

 eggs scattered in the leaves was revealed one of the architect's peculiarities. A 

 hole had been left in the centre of the nest, and only recently filled with leaves, 

 whose fresh green colour testified that they had been cut and placed there later 

 than the others, forming the carpeting to the bottom of this common incubator. 

 The eggs were all fresh, the six occupying the nest having the characteristic white 

 calcareous surface perfectly clean, and without the slightest variation in colour. 

 Not so with the eggs found about the outside of the nest : those found in contact 

 with the leaves had taken on a dirty yellowish tinge, while those suspended among 

 the leaves and thorns showed various spots and lines of the lustrous blue colour 

 forming the base for the chalky external coat." 



The Plantain-Eaters. 



Family Musophagid^ 



Having many characters in common with the cuckoos, the plantain-caters, or 

 touracos, of Africa, are regarded as indicating a separate suborder, distinguished by 

 having the oil-gland tufted and after-shafts to the body-feathers, while the feet are 

 not wholly zygodactyle, the fourth toe being capable of being turned either back- 

 wards or forwards. The tail-feathers are ten in number. Twenty-five species are 

 known, which may be divided into two sections, one including those which have 

 crimson quills, and the other those in which there is no red in the wings. 

 Crimson-Winged These birds are often called louris in South Africa, where 



Plantain-Eaters, they frequent the forest districts, building an open nest of sticks in a 

 bush, and resembling that of a pigeon, the egg being also white like that of the 

 last-named birds. Of Eraser's plantain -eater (Turacus 'niacrorhynchus) Mr. 

 Biittikofer gives some notes in his account of the birds collected by himself in 

 Liberia, stating that it is a splendid and very lively bird in a wild state, always 

 keeping to the densest crowns of the trees in the virgin forest, where it lives in 

 pairs or in families after the breeding-season. It is so shy that it would not be 

 easily found by the hunter if it was not for its crow-like voice, interrupted now 

 and then by a mewing, exactly like that of a cat. When not disturbed these 

 birds can be very noisy, flapping their beautiful red wings, and running after 

 each other like squirrels among the branches. As their bright wings would 

 render them too obvious to their enemies, they seldom fly very far at once, but 

 advance by running through the foliage of the trees, hidden by the resemblance 

 of their colour to that of the surrounding foliage. Their food consists of 

 different kinds of wild fruits, and insects were never found in dissected specimens. 

 A very interesting fact has been discovered with respect to the colouring matter 

 in the wing of the touracous, which consists of a kind of copper, called turacine. 

 It was at one time supposed that this coppery impregnation of the colouring 

 matter of the bird's wing could be accounted for by its picking up grains of 

 malachite, but the touracous are birds which live in trees, and do not apparently 

 descend to the ground, while the red feathers have been assumed by specimens in 

 captivity, some of which moulted more than once. 



