290 cuckow. 



37 —BLACK AND WHITE CRESTED CUCKOW. 



Variete du Coucou Edolio, Levuil. Afr. v. p. 44. pi. 209. 



Cuculus Ater, African Cuckow, Gen. Zool.ix. p. 115. pi. 24. Zool. Misc. i. 72. 31. 



LENGTH fifteen inches. Bill one inch and a quarter long-, 

 stout, bent, black ; top of the head furnished with a full crest, 

 hanging backwards ; general colour of the plumage fine black, with 

 a greenish gloss, as in the Magpie ; under parts yellowish white, 

 marked, as far as the breast, with sagittal black spots, the points 

 downwards ; base of the prime quills white for some length, forming 

 a dentated patch ; wings white beneath half way, the ends greyish 

 black ; tail of ten feathers, greatly cuneiform, and the feathers white 

 at the ends, for near an inch ; the outer scarcely half the length 

 of the two middle ones ; legs stout, scaly, black ; the ends of the 

 quills reach just beyond the rump. 



The above described from one in the collection of M. Temminck, 

 of Amsterdam ; brought from Africa, near the Equinoctial Line, 

 it may, probably, be a Variety of the Edolio, but is a larger bird. 

 One of these, in the collection of Mr. H. Brogden, was brought from 

 Sierra Leona : another, very similar, in that of Lord Stanley, was 

 met with by Mr. Salt, in Abyssinia, 



Another bird, which I suspect also to be a Variety, was fourteen 

 inches long. Bill stout, one inch and three quarters from the gape, 

 and flesh-colour ; irides golden ; plumage in general glossy black 

 above, and dull beneath ; wing coverts margined at the tips with 

 white, forming slender crescents in appearance; feathers of the rump 

 margined in the same manner, with white ; and the ends of the quills 

 are white also ; tail seven inches long, plain black ; legs stout, blue. 



Inhabits India. — A figure of this is among the drawings of Gen. 

 Hardwicke, but it could not be ascertained whether the tail was 

 cuneiform. 



