676 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
Centropus leucogaster leucogaster (Leach). Black-throated Coucal or Spurred Cuckoo 
Polophilus leucogaster Leach, Zool. Misc., vol. 1, p. 117, pl. 52, 1814: [Gold Coast]. 
Large, length about 22 inches; head, fore neck, and upper back shining blue-black, lower back 
and shoulders dark brown, rump blackish green with brownish cross-barring; tail steely black, 
shoulders reddish brown; below pale yellowish, center of breast and belly white. Senegambia to 
Gaboon. 
Although we were on the lookout for this bird, we did not once identify 
it and it is evidently much rarer or more local in its distribution than C. sene- 
galensis. Bittikofer is the only one to record it from Liberia. He mentions 
(1885, p. 223) a female from Bavia on the St. Paul’s River, and other speci- 
mens from Schieffelinsville and Hill Town (1888, p. 96), while Stampfli secured 
three others on the Junk and Du rivers (1886, p. 264). In the vicinity of 
Cape Mount at Buluma, he found a nest, December 6, containing two young, 
placed in high grass about a foot above the ground ‘‘in brushwood,” and later 
(1890, p. 205) secured two more at Robertport and Marfa River. Birds from 
this region have been distinguished as a distinct subspecies, chalybeiceps, with 
greenish heads. 
Centropus senegalensis senegalensis (Linné). Senegal Spurred Cuckoo; ‘‘Doodoo”’ 
Cuculus senegalensis Linné, Syst. Nat., ed. 12, vol. 1, p. 169, 1766: Senegal. 
A large brown cuckoo, length 16 inches, crown and nape black, back and wings cinnamon, 
tail blackish with steely reflections; chin, throat, and abdomen white washed with buffy. Bill 
black. West Africa, Senegambia to Kuanza. 
This is a common and characteristic bird, frequenting the dense thickets 
and scrub growth that spring up on the edges of clearings and about habita- 
tions, consistently avoiding heavy woods. No doubt the occupation and clear- 
ing of the land has favored its increase. It is one of the first birds to awaken 
in the dusk of the morning, when its peculiar liquid notes may be heard at 
short intervals, reminding one of the bubbling sounds produced by pouring 
water from a bottle, a dozen or so bubbling notes at first going down the scale, 
then rising toward the end. The bird has a characteristic way of perching 
on the tops of low bushes, and when in flight, as I once had a good opportunity 
to see distinctly, the feet are held directed partly backward. Biittikofer (1890, 
p. 205) mentions that the young are tinged with rufous below, and Oberholser 
(1899) has given a full description of the first plumage. 
Ceuthmochares aereus flavirostris (Swainson). Senegal Green Coucal 
Zanclostomus flavirostris Swainson, Birds West Africa, vol. 2, p. 183, pl. 19, 1837: West Africa. 
Size of the European Cuckoo, head and belly smoky, throat and breast gray; back, wings, and 
tail iridescent blue to purplish. Bill yellow, iris red. Senegal to southern Nigeria. 
This bird gives the impression of a long slender all-gray cuckoo, with a 
sharply contrasting yellow bill, yet Buttikofer (1890, p. 205) has recorded one 
with a black bill. We saw the bird several times and secured one of a pair 
at Gbanga, an adult female, September 6. Biittikofer found it near Robert- 
