THE GREAT SPOTTED CUCKOO. 



Coccystes glandarius (Linn ae us). 

 Plate 25. 



This large Cuckoo is a very rare visitor to the British Islands, four specimens 

 only having been recorded, viz. the first captured on Omey Island, off the Conne- 

 mara coast, about 1842, the next near Bellingham, Northumberland, another on 

 the Denes, Yarmouth, and the last seen at the Skellig Rock, county Kerry, by the 

 lightkeeper there. The Great Spotted Cuckoo is found in South-western Europe, 

 particularly Spain and Portugal, ranging across Asia Minor to Persia. It also 

 inhabits North Africa, retiring in the winter to tropical and South Africa. 



It is said always to place its eggs in nests belonging to the Corvidae (Irby) ; the 

 colour is pale bluish-green, spotted with reddish-brown and purplish. 



Howard Saunders describes the note of the male as a harsh kark-kark^' and 

 the female's as " burroo-bttrroor 



The sexes are alike in colour, but the young bird has the head and nape 

 much darker, with tawny-buff on the throat and breast, and chestnut on part 

 of the primaries. 



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