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Show 1877-] MR. E. L. LAYARD ON AFRICAN CUCKOOS. 465 I see also Dr. Finsch alludes, in the ' Ornithologie der Viti-, Samoa- und Tonga-Inseln,' to Myiagra castaneiventris being found in Samoa. Will he kindly inform us on what authority he does this ? as neither Mr. Whitmee, Mr. Krauss (Messrs. Godeffroy's collector there), nor myself could ever find it there, and we all doubt its existence on the group. Will Dr. Finsch, who writes as if he had specimens before him from the Navigators', tell us who procured them, when, and where? My impression is that some Fijian specimens have been accidentally mixed by the collector with M. albiventris, the only Myiagra we have ever found in Samoa. 3. Note on two African Cuckoos of the Genus Coccystes. By E. L. LAYARD, C.M.G., F.Z.S., &c. &c, H.B.M. Consul in New Caledonia. [Eeceived May 22, 1877.] In Mr. R. B. Sharpe's paper on the Cuculidae of the Ethiopian Region (P. Z. S. 1873, p. 599), in commenting on Coccystes jacobinus, Bodd., and C. serratus, Sparrm., he much underrates the " testimony " I have given that they are distinct species, and not d and 2 °f o n e' My " testimony " is not simply " that they are not equally common in the parts of South Africa they inhabit;" and I should regret very much that it should be thought that m y "testimony" as to the sexual differences of species described by me either in the ' Birds of South Africa,' or elsewhere, were based on no surer foundation than the numbers found in certain places. Mr. Sharpe will find that, under the head of Oxylophus edolius (C. serratus, Sparrm.), I have distinctly alluded to the males and females, without giving any special description of the female, which was m y custom when she (to m y knowledge, always obtained by dissection) differed in any way from the male; and under that of O. melanoleucus, I state that Le Vaillant mistook this species for the female of the preceding. Nothing, I think, can be plainer and stronger " testimony " than this. I can now add a little information which will appear in the second edition of the ' Birds of South Africa,' which Mr. Sharpe is bringing out. Mr. H. Bowker writes, " This is another cuckoo which I cannot quite make out from your description [he sent both species], but think it is 0. melanoleucus, very common in Albany district, and appears early in October. It lays its egg in the nest of the 'Black Swallow-tail Spreo' (Edolius musicusl), and also in that of the Woodpecker, and looks after its young to see that the foster-parents are attentive to them. I once watched a Woodpecker's nest; and when the nurses brought food to the nest, they were always accompanied by one of these birds, who, after the Woodpeckers left, always looked in to see if all was right, and then sat near until the return of the Woodpeckers, when the same thing P R O C ZOOL. Soc-1877, No. XXX. 30 |