on Cuckoos in captivity.



39



“ and one to Copenhagen ; of the fifth I can find no particulars,

“ most likely it died. They are strong birds which are contented

“ with ordinary thrush-food. I have never heard a call or any

“note from these Cuckoos.”


Russ also mentions another Coucal, which he calls the Sunda

Islands Coucal as having been kept by the Amsterdam Zoo. This

is probably C. javanicus, which has an extensive range from Assam

and Malaya to the Malay Islands, the Philippines, and Celebes.


Radiated Fruit-Cuckoo ( Carpococcyx radiatus).


This bird is a native of Borneo and the last of the Old World

Cuckoos with which I have to deal. Above it is a dark metallic

green glossed on the wings and tail with bluish; below brown with

dark green cross-stripes. The bill is green and a red bare eye-patch

is a noticeable feature. One of these rare birds lived for a long time

in the Zoo, a record of which is to be found in the following foot-note

to a paper on the anatomy of the bird, which appeared in the ‘ Ibis ’

for 1901, p. 200 :


“Received August 31st, 1882. See ‘ P.Z.S.,’ 1882,

“ p. 358. It lived nearly eighteen years in the Gardens, and

“died June 7th, 1900. It was fed mostly on a vegetable diet

“ with a little scraped meat intermixed; occasionally insects

“ were given, and a dead mouse every other day.”


Russ mentions the same individual in his list, and here we

have one of the few records of a long and doubtless honourable

life of a captive Cuckoo. * I wish I could find and give the same

amount of information about the Coucals mentioned above, where

the particulars are so meagre that they probably indicate but short

and unsatisfactory sojournings in their European homes.


Guira Cuckoo ( Guira guira).


These South American Cuckoos have been not infrequently

kept at the Zoo and in other collections of birds In the Zoo they

have nested but never succeeded in rearing their young. This


* [This individual was figured in the Illustrated London News as “ A New Arrival

at the Zoo : the Radiated Fruit Cuckoo.” I well remember seeing it in

1899 : it was kept in the then Insect House at the Gardens, and had injured

one leg at some time or other. — G. R.]



