174 CUCULID^ CUCULUS 



Genus I. CUCULUS. 



Type. 

 Cuculus, Linn. Syst. Nat. 12th ed. i, p. 168 (1766) C. canorus. 



Bill moderate, nostrils somewhat rouaded and pierced ia a 

 swollen membrane ; no crest on the head ; wings long and pointed, 

 the third quill the longest, exceeding the secondaries by almost half 

 the length of the wing ; tail shorter than the wings and graduated. 

 Plumage of the adult slaty or black, never metallic, that of the 

 young bird usually barred. This genus is spread over the whole 

 of the Old World except the Pacific Islands ; out of seven African 

 species, five reach our limits, two of them, however, being only 

 visitors from the northern hemisphere. 



Cuckoos are birds of strong flight and remarkable habits, they 

 are most of them migratory and have a loud and resonant note 

 which renders them well known in every country. They do not 

 pair but indulge in promiscuous intercourse, and the females deposit 

 their eggs in the nests of other birds. It is now generally agreed 

 that, as Levaillant stated a century ago, • the female bird lays her 

 egg on the ground and conveys it in her mouth to the nest selected. 

 In the case of the European cuckoo, the parent apparently takes no 

 further heed of her eggs or young, but one or two observations 

 made in this country seem to point to the fact that the parents 

 hang round the nest of .the foster bird and perhaps sometimes assist 

 to feed the callow young one. 



Key of the Species. 



A. Slaty above, barred below. 

 a. Throat grey. 



a}. Beak yellow except the extreme tip ; 



outer tail-feather barred with white... C. gularis, p. 174. 

 &'. Beak black, outer tail-feather spotted 

 along the shaft, with no complete bars, 

 a'. Larger, wittg 8 to 9 inches ; bars on 



the chest dusky 0. canorus, p. 177. 



6'. Smaller, wing 6 to 7 inches ; bars on 



the chest black C. poliooepJialus, p. 178. 



h. Throat rich rufous C. soUtarius, p. 178. 



B. Black above and below C. clamosus, p. 182. 



459. Cuculus gularis. So2ith African Cuckoo. 



Le Coucou vulgah-e d'AMque, Levaill. Ois. d'Afr. v, p. 20, pis. 20, 21 



(1806). 

 Cuculus gularis, Steph. Gen. Zool. ix, p. 83, pi. 17 (1815) ; Ayres, Ibis, 



1859, p. 246 [Natal] ; Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 249 (1867) ; Gurney 



