220 
Annals of the Transvaal Museum 
The Lark-heeled Cuckoos may be separated as follows: Centropus 
Illiger, type Cuculus senegalensis L. Size intermediate; colour, buffy white 
below, head metallic coloured. Centropus superciliosus Hempr. and Ehr., 
which lacks the metallic colour of the head might perhaps be given sub- 
generic place to obviate confusion where members of the two groups occur 
side by side. 
Megacentropus gen. nov., type Centropus cupreicaudus Reichenow: size 
largest; colour, much the same as in Centropus, though darker. It comes 
nearer to Pyrrhocentor Cabanis, type Centropus celehensis, than Centropus, 
but differs in its longer wings and shorter tail. 
Grillia gen. nov., type Centropus grilli Hartlaub: size smallest; colour, 
entirely black on the underparts of the body. This genus comes nearest 
to Corydonyx Vieillot, type Centropus toulou, but differs therefrom in its 
shorter, more arched bill, longer wings and shorter tail. 
All records of Centropus senegalensis from South Africa should be 
referred to C. s. flecki Rchw. C. Grant {Ihis, 1915, p. 428) records the 
occurrence of C. hurchelli fasciipygialis in the lower Zambesi valley, as also 
C. superciliosus. C. pymi (Rbts. Ann. Transvaal Mus. iv. 175, 1914) de- 
scribed from Kaffraria should be added to our list as a subspecies of 
C. superciliosus. Neumann (Bull. Brit. Orn. Cl. xii. 75, 1902) has shown 
that the name of Centropus nigrorufus is not applicable to the African Black 
Coucal, and that the name of Centropus (= Grillia) grilli Hartlaub must 
replace it. C. Grant (l.c. p. 420) has described a specimen of this species 
from Durban under the name of Centropus grilli wahlbergi, to which he 
apparently also refers my record of C. grilli caeruleiceps Neumann from 
Sabi, Transvaal. 
Indicatoridae 
Oberholser (l.c. p. 870) has separated the Lesser Honeyguide under the 
generic name of Melignothes Cassin, on the shape of the bill; but this 
character is somewhat variable and a better one is to be found in the shape 
of the nasal apertures, which are tubular and project above the surrounding 
membrane, this differing in the Greater Honeyguide in being more flattened 
slits. In Indicator variegatus Lesson the nostrils are very similar to those 
of Melignothes, but it differs otherwise in having the mandible less swollen 
and in size equals the Greater Honeyguide; I would therefore separate it 
as well, under the new generic name of Melipodagus, type I. variegatus 
Lesson. With regard to species, the late Captain Boyd Alexander was the 
first to point out (Bull. Brit. Orn. Cl. xxi. 91, 1908) that the Greater and 
Yellow- throated Honeyguides are synonymous, which is borne out by 
specimens in the Transvaal Museum, which are moulting from the yellow 
to black plumage on the throat ; the black on the head would seem to be 
the adult plumage of the male alone. There is a general misconception in 
literature that the typical Lesser Honeyguide occurs throughout our limits ; 
but examination of our material shows that the olive colour of the throat 
in typical birds from the Cape Province gives way to pure white in the 
tropics. I therefore name the northern form Melignothes Minor Albi- 
GULARis, subspecies nova, the type an adult male from Woodbush, north- 
eastern Transvaal, in the Transvaal Museum collection; in size it does not 
differ from typical specimens from the Cape Province, but in the Lower 
Zambesi valley becomes smaller, greyer on the head and in general rather 
