108 An Expedition to the Zambesi River. 
weed. Meanwhile, along the further confines of the reed- 
bed, several more individuals have crept out from their thick 
retreats in the same cautious manner, and they one and all 
commence to call the females to their sides, by uttering a 
series of deep mellow notes full of penetrative power, which 
might be described, by the syllables “ ho, ho, ho, v each 
descending a tone in succession. 
When the breeding-season approaches (about the end of 
October), these birds may frequently be heard throughout 
the day, and even in the middle of a moonlight night. 
While the river flows through a land of hushed silence, 
they are still wide-awake and answering one another with 
their far-reaching mellow notes, that now and again become 
rapid in utterance, just like the sound of water bubbling 
from a long-necked jar. And the silence only tends to 
enhance the beauty of these notes; so rich and so full of 
soft love-passion are they that one cannot help exclaiming 
“ How good a thing it is to live in this land of nature ! ” 
158. Coccystes jacobinus (Bodd.). 
As soon as the first rain had fallen and the trees had 
begun to put on leaf, this species appeared in pairs. We 
observed the first at Zumbo on November 15, after which 
date they became numerous and noisy, uttering when on 
the wing loud penetrating notes exactly similar to the alarm- 
cry of the Green Woodpecker. 
159. Coccystes hypopinarius (Cab. & Heine). 
An adult male on November 8 : Zumbo. 
160. Coccystes cafer (Licht.). 
First seen on November 22 near Zumbo, when a male 
was obtained with its sexual organs in breeding condition. 
161. Cuculus canorus (Linn.). 
First observed and obtained on November 30, an immature 
male with plumage much in quill, and subsequently on 
December 27 a female of the hepatic type. 
