1877.] MR. E. L. LAYARD ON AFRICAN CUCKOOS. 4C5 



I see also Dr. Finsch alludes, in the ' Ornithologie der Viti-, 

 Samoa- und Tonga-Iuseln,' to Mi/iar/ra castaneiventris being found 

 in Samoa. Will lie kindly inform us on what authority he does this 1 

 as neither Mr. Whitmee, Mr. Krauss (Messrs. Godeffroy's collector 

 there), nor myself could ever find it there, and we all doubt its existence 

 on the group. Will Dr. Finsch, who writes as if he had specimeus 

 before him from the Navigators', tell us who procured them, when, 

 and where? My impression is that some Fijian specimens have 

 been accidentally mixed by the collector with M. albiventris, the 

 only Myiagra we have ever found in Samoa. 



3. Note on two African Cuckoos of the Genus Coccystes. 

 By E. L. Layard, C.M.G., F.Z.S., &c. &c., H.B.M. 

 Consul in New Caledonia. 



[Eeceived May 22, 1877.] 



In Mr. R. B. Sharpe's paper on the Cuculidse of the Ethiopian 

 Region (P. Z. S. 1873, p. 599), in commenting on Coccystes jaco- 

 binus, Bodd., and C. serratus, Sparrm., he much underrates the 

 " testimony " I have given that they are distinct species, and not ^ 

 and 2 of one. My " testimony " is not simply " that they are not 

 equally common in the parts of South Africa they inhabit;" and I 

 should regret very much that it should be thought that my "testi- 

 mony" as to the sexual differences of species described by me either 

 in the ' Birds of South Africa,' or elsewhere, were based on no surer 

 foundation than the numbers found in certain places. 



Mr. Sharpe will find that, under the head of Oxylophus edolius 

 (C. serratus, Sparrm.), I have distinctly alluded to the males and 

 females, without giving any special description of the female, which 

 was my custom when she (to my knowledge, always obtained by 

 dissection) differed in any way from the male ; and under that of O. 

 melanoleucus, I state that Le Vaillant mistook this species for the 

 female of the preceding. Nothing, I think, can be plainer and 

 stronger " testimony " than this. 



I can now add a little information which will appear in the second 

 edition of the ' Birds of South Africa,' which Mr. Sharpe is bringing 

 out. Mr. H. Bovvker writes, "This is another cuckoo which I 

 cannot quite make out from your description [he sent both 

 species], but think it is 0. melanoleucus, very common in Albany 

 district, and appears early in October. It lays its egg in the nest of 

 the 'Black Swallow-tail Spreo ' {Edolius musicusT), and also in 

 that of the Woodpecker, and looks after its young to see that the 

 foster-parents are attentive to them. I once watched a Wood- 

 pecker's nest ; and when the nurses brought food to the nest, they 

 were always accompanied by one of these birds, who, after the 

 Woodpeckers left, always looked in to see if all was right, and then 

 sat near until the return of the Woodpeckers, when the same thing 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1877, No. XXX. 30 



