s
NESOCENTOR MILO.
Solomon-Islands Lark-heeled Cuckoo.
Centropus mih, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1856, p. 136.—Gray. Cat. B. Tropical Jsl. Pacific Ocean, p. 34 (1859).
—Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1S69, p. 124.—Gray, Hand-1. B. ii. p. 213, no. 8974 (1870).—Ramsay, Proc.
Linn. Soc. N. S. "Wales, iv. p. 69\(1879).
Nesocentor milo, Cab. & Heine, Mus. Hein, iv. p. 120 (1862).—Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov, xiii. p. 463
(1878) Id. Om. Papuasia e delle Moluccbe, i. p. 385 (1880).—Grant, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1888, p. 191.
T h e genus Nesocentor was founded in 1862 by Drs. Cabanis and Heine for the reception o f several Lark-
heeled Cuckoos from the Austro-Malayan Subregion; but apart from their sombre style o f coloration, we
can see no reason for separating these §bjrds from the genus Centropus, though in the present instance we
have adopted the nomenclature o f Count Salvadori, the leadiug authority on Papuan ornithology.
The type specimen o f the present species was discovered by the late John Macgillivray on the island of
Guadalcanal where it has since been met with by Mr. Woodford and other travellers. The typical example
is not quite adult, and was described by Count Salvadori in bis work on the birds o f New Guinea. He
appears afterwards to have entertained some doubt as to the specimen described by him in England having
been really the ty p e ; and on requesting D r. Sclater to re-examine the specimen, he was assured by the
latter gentleman th at it did not exist in the Museum. How this mistake arose we cannot say, and we
have no immediate recollection o f a visit from Dr. Sclater to examine the specimen in question ; it may
have been temporarily mislaid during the removal o f the Natural History collections down to South
Kensington, but we are happy to say th at it is quite safe in the national collection.
As far as is known, the present species is only found in the island of Guadalcanal*, in the Solomon group,
where it replaces the smaller N . ateralbus o f New Ireland, which is a violet-black bird with a white head.
T h e latter is also said to inhabit the Solomon Islands on the faith o f a collection seut by Mr. KrefFt to
Dr. Sclater in 1871. So many birds in this collection really came from New Ireland, and not from the
Solomons* th at we may fairly suppose that the locality for N. ateralbus is wrongly recorded.
In N. milo the adult male is black, sides o f the body greenish black with a steel-green gloss; the head,
neck, mantle, throat, and breast creamy white ; the abdomen black. Total length 28 inches, culmen 2*3,
wing 10*1, tail 13*5, tarsus 2*65. The young is rufous streaked with black, and somewhat resembles the
adults o f other Lark-heels.
T h e figures in the Plate a re taken from an adult male and a young female shot on Guadalcanar by Lieut.
Reginald Tupper, R.N., and presented by him to the British Museum. He says that the iris was yellow or
orange. Mr. Woodford gives the iris as red, and the bill and feet black, in an adult male from Aola.
Another adult male had a brown iris and grey feet, while in an adult female and an immature bird the iris
was dark grey and brown respectively. [R B S ]