Birds from the West Coast of Africa. 



245 



(liavijig traces of the barring on the chest, although they 

 may have already lost all traces of the bars on the under 

 ■wiug-coverts — so conspicuous a feature in young birds), 

 I have eliminated these in working out the characters ; 

 only skins of adult birds of which the origin is unques- 

 tioned being taken into account. The most noticeal)le point 

 is that the tail in C. smaragdineus is considerably longer 

 and the rectrices more graduated than in C. smuraf/dineus 

 intermedins. 



From the following Table it will be seen that the tail in 

 adult South African birds is much shorter than in those from 

 the North-West and North-East of Africa. 



The measurement of the tail is taken from between the 

 base of the middle tail-feathers to the tip. In each case I 

 have added the authority for the locality in brackets. 



C. smaraydineus. 



Tail, 

 rum. 



Gold Coast (Kirby) 133 



Liberia (Lowe) 117 



Axiiu (Lowe) 110 



Sierra Leone (Chamley) .... 104 

 Charada, Kaff'a Ab^^ssinia 



(Zaphiro) \ 122 



Do. do. do. (Zaphiro) 136 

 Djima, Abyssinia (Zaphiro). . 135 

 Charada Forest, Abyssinia 



(ZapWro) ' 120 



Do. do. do. (Zaphiro) 115 



C. s. irdermedius. 



Tail, 

 mm. 

 Zoutpansberg District (C. 



Grant) 91 



Do. do. (C. Grant) 92 



Zululaud (C. Grant) 95 



Danger River (Ausell) 92 



Another important difference, already noticed by Swain- 

 son, is the fiict that in C. smaragdineus the under tail-coverts 

 become bright yellow, occasionally banded with emerald 

 green ; in the case of Mr. Lowe's two specimens the under 

 tail-feathers have only one or two diminutive streaks of 

 emerald green. 



Examples of C. s. iniermedius never attain yellow under 

 tail-coverts, which are ivhite banded with emerald green. 



Skins of the Emerald Cuckoo are so liable to fade that in 

 the series in the National Collection it is extremelv hard to 



