190 CUCULID^ CHEYSOCOCCYX 



and spots on either web almost forming bars ; wing-coverts, a narrow 

 band under the eye, and malar stripe green ; rest of the sides of the 

 head and under surface white, strongly barred on the sides of the 

 body, the under wing-, thigh- and tail- coverts with dull green. 



Iris and eyelids red; bill— upper mandible, dark horn, lower 

 light at the base, dark at the tip ; legs and feet bluish-black. 



Length 7-5 ; wing 4-40 ; tail 3-20 ; culmen 0-60 ; tarsus 0-70. 



The adult female closely resembles the male, but the back is 

 much more coppery and less green ; the white crown-marking is 

 absent, or only slightly developed, and the bronze barring of the 

 lower surface is more pronounced, usually reaching right across the 

 chest ; the throat and front of the chest are generally shaded with 

 buff; eyelids dusky; iris dull red or tawny. 



A young bird has the head uniform rufous, the back is green 

 narrowly barred with rufous, the white on the wings and tail is 

 largely replaced by rufous; below white, the throat and chest 

 streaked, the rest of the lower surface transversely barred with 

 bronzy -green. 



Iris light tawny-brown ; bill yellow or orange-red, becoming 

 darker. 



Distribution. — The Didric is, generally speaking, the most abun- 

 dant and widely distributed of the Golden Cuckoos ; it is found all 

 over the Ethiopian region, from the Gambia river and Abyssinia 

 southward to Cape Colony. Like the other species of the genus 

 this bird is found in South Africa only in the summer from October 

 to May, and appears to migrate during our winter to the upper 

 Nile Valley and Abyssinia, and perhaps to west Africa, but as it 

 has been obtained in the Cameroons in February and in the Fantee 

 country in December, this rule does not appear to be absolute. 

 South of the Zambesi the Didric appears to be found everywhere, 

 except in Great Namaqualand, though less abundantly in Ehodesia 

 than elsewhere. 



The following are the principal recorded localities : Cape 

 Colony — Namaqualand (Anderson), Carnarvon and Beaufort West 

 (S. A. Mus.), Colesberg (Layard), Griqualand West, November, 

 December (Burchell), Oudtshoorn, December, January (Victorin), 

 Knysna, December (Bt. Mus.), Albany (Ivy), Peddie (S. A. Mus.), 

 Port St. John's, November (S. A. Mus.) ; Natal — Upper portion 

 (AjTes), Bchowe and Black Umfolosi river (Woodward) ; Orange 

 Eiver Colony — Bloemfontein, December (Ivy), Kroonstad, October, 

 March (Symonds) ; Transvaal — Komatipoort, October (Francis in 



