194 CUCULID^ COCCYSTES 



pletely black crown ; the greater portion of the wing-quills chestnut 

 and a much darker ochreous chest and collar. 



Distribution. — The Great Spotted Cuckoo is a migratory bird, 

 spending the northern summer and breeding in southern Spain, 

 north Africa and western Asia as far as Persia, while it has 

 occasionally wandered to England and other parts of northern 

 Europe. During the northern winter it is spread all over Africa 

 south of the Sahara. Within our limits it appears to be somewhat 

 local and rare, though it is recorded from most districts of our area, 

 except the western half of the Cape Colony ; it arrives usually in 

 October and leaves in March, and has been found breeding in 

 December by Ivy. 



The following are recorded localities : Cape Colony — Port 

 Elizabeth (Bt. Mus.), Albany div. December, February (Ivy), 

 Cathcart (Boulger), King Williams Town (Trevelyan) ; Natal — 

 Blaauwkrantz river, near Colenso (Eeid in November, Garriock in 

 March) ; Orange Eiver Colony — Bloemfontein, January (Bt. Mus.), 

 Kroonstad, November to January (Symonds) ; Transvaal — Lyden- 

 burg dist. January (Francis in S. A. Mus.), Potchefstroom, January 

 and February (Ayres), Eustenburg (Barratt in Bt. Mus.) ; Ehodesia 

 — Salisbury, November (Marshall) ; German south-west Africa — 

 Otjimbinque, December to March, Ondonga November, and Oka- 

 vango river (Andersson). 



Habits. — The Great Spotted Cuckoo seems to be fairly plentiful 

 near Salisbury and at Kroonstad ; at the former place it arrives at 

 the end of September and is seen about singly or in pairs ; it has 

 a harsh chatting scolding cry, and the males are often seen chasing 

 one another in early summer ; they are very cunning birds and 

 hide in the middle of a thick tree, slipping out quietly on the 

 opposite side to that by which they are approached. Their food 

 consists of insects such as locusts, beetles, and hairy caterpillars ; 

 the urticating hairs of these latter are got rid of by running tbe 

 larvEe from side to side through the bill before they are swallowed. 



Mr. Ivy gives the following account of their breeding in South 

 Africa : " Mr. B. Campbell, of Eocklands, Fish Eiver, brought home 

 in December two eggs of this bird. They were of a pale dull blue 

 with small blackish spots ; they had been found in the nest of a 

 Black Crow {Corvus capensis) along with three of the typical pink- 

 cream eggs of that bird. 



" In the same month of the same year I found a nest of the 

 Eed-winged Starling {Amydrus morio) placed on a ledge on the 



