36



Dr. E. Hopkinson,



eggs in the nests of the native Flycatchers (Gerygone). It is a

spotted brown bird, some 16 in. in length. As a cage-bird I have

only one record, that of its inclusion in the London Zoo collection in

1864 (Euss, ‘ Die Fremdlandischen Stubenvogel,’ 1899, p. 662).


The next group are the Coucals, which are found throughout

the greater part of the warmer regions of the Old World. These

birds build their own nests and hatch their own eggs and they are

more or less terrestrial in habit, being strong on the leg but rather

clumsy and slow on the wing. A characteristic feature of the group

is the harsh, stiff plumage. Some half-a-dozen of the forty odd

species appear to have been known as cage-birds. With these 1 will

now deal.



Senegal Coucal (Centropus senecjalensis).


This inhabitant of Tropical Africa I know well in the Gambia,

where I kept one for a short time once and could often have had

others, had I so desired. I do not, however, propose to try for any

more unless at the end of a tour it happens that I can get one or two

just before I am due for leave, so that I can get them home to the

Zoo quickly and without having to waste cage-room on them for

any length of time.


My bird was caught in the kitchen-hut, which he had entered

to pick up scraps, so I presume from this and from the ease with

which he was “ meated off,” that in a natural state the Coucals are

accustomed to supplement their ordinary diet of insects, reptiles, etc.,

with any offal or dead things they can pick up. It was only a very

short time after capture before he settled down to cage-life, and he

did well until his unregretted escape a month or six weeks later.

At first I fed him on live locusts and any other large insects which

could be easily obtained; then I got him on to dead food, such as

mice and bats, and before very long he would eat almost anything in

the shape of animal matter, such as raw or cooked meat, chicken

guts, and other kitchen refuse. He got tame in a wonderfully short

time, but nevertheless I can hardly give him a good character as a

cage-bird, as his diet would make him a smelly and unpleasant in¬

door pet, and his rough loose plumage is so easily soiled, that he soon

loses the few good looks he may originally have possessed.



