CUCKOOS. 
13 
about it were scattered seven more. He writes that “ in the finding of some of the 
eggs scattered in the leaves was revealed one of the architect’s peculiarities. A 
hole had been left in the centre of the nest, and only recently filled with leaves, 
whose fresh green colour testified that they had been cut and placed there later 
than the others, forming the carpeting to the bottom of this common incubator. 
The eggs were all fresh, the six occupying the nest having the characteristic white 
calcareous surface perfectly clean, and without the slightest variation in colour. 
Not so with the eggs found about the outside of the nest: those found in contact 
with the leaves had taken on a dirty yellowish tinge, while those suspended among 
the leaves and thorns showed various spots and lines of the lustrous blue colour 
forming the base for the chalky external coat.” 
The Plantain-Eaters. 
Family MusophagidJE 
Having many characters in common with the cuckoos, the plantain-eaters, or 
touracos, of Africa, are regarded as indicating a separate suborder, distinguished by 
having the oil-gland tufted and after-shafts to the body-feathers, while the feet are 
not wholly zygodactyle, the fourth toe being capable of being turned either back¬ 
wards or forwards. The tail-feathers are ten in number. Twenty-five species are 
known, which may be divided into two sections, one including those which have 
crimson quills, and the other those in which there is no red in the wings. 
Crimson-Winged These birds are often called louris in South Africa, where 
Plantain-Eaters, they frequent the forest districts, building an open nest of sticks in a 
bush, and resembling that of a pigeon, the egg being also white like that of the 
last-named birds. Of Fraser’s plantain-eater (Turacus mcicrorhynchus ) Mr. 
Blittikofer gives some notes in his account of the birds collected by himself in 
Liberia, stating that it is a splendid and very lively bird in a wild state, always 
keeping to the densest crowns of the trees in the virgin forest, where it lives in 
pairs or in families after the breeding-season. It is so shy that it would not be 
easily found by the hunter if it was not for its crow-like voice, interrupted now 
and then by a mewing, exactly like that of a cat. When not distuibed these 
birds can be very noisy, flapping their beautiful red wings, and running after 
each other like squirrels among the branches. As their bright wings would 
render them too obvious to their enemies, they seldom fly very far at once, but 
advance by running through the foliage of the trees, hidden by the resemblance 
of their colour to that of the surrounding foliage. Their food consists of 
different kinds of wild fruits, and insects were never found in dissected specimens. 
A very interesting fact has been discovered with respect to the colouring matter 
in the wing of the touracous, which consists of a kind of copper, called turacme. 
It was at one time supposed that this coppery impregnation of the colouring- 
matter of the bird’s wing could be accounted for by its picking up grains of 
malachite, but the touracous are birds which live in trees, and do not apparently 
descend to the ground, while the red feathers have been assumed by specimens in 
captivity, some of which moulted more than once. 
