adults; under surface of body entirely yellowish white, the lower
under wing-coverts brown; bill horn-brown.
. Fig;. Levaill. Ois. d’Afr. v. pi. 208.
1 4 3 . C occystes SERRATUS. Black Crested Cuckoo.
This species can easily be told from any of the other Crested
Cuckoos of South Africa by its entirely black colour both above
and below.
It is abundant in mimosa bushes throughout the Karroo and
extends into the Cape peninsula, and has also been received from all
parts of the colony to the eastward. This bird visits the Cape
about the new year, whence the name of “ Nieuwejaarsvogel,” that
it has acquired among the colonists. It evidently lays at that season,
as we took a mature egg from the body of one that was killed at
Eondebosch. The egg was white, glossy, and rounded at each end:
axis, IS " '; diam., I I '7' . The stomach contained caterpillars,
beetles, maggots, and flies, but the chief mass consisted of termites.
We found them in considerable abundance at Nel’s Poort, usually in
pairs, frequenting the trees along the river banks. Mr. Atmore
writes that the "eggs are white, and usually deposited in the nest
of the ‘ Geelgat’ (Pycnonotus capensis).” We saw it near Alice, at
the farm of Barend Woests in Marchs Mr. H. Bowker writes : " I t
calls frequently during the-night, particularly about nine of ten
o’clock. I have found their eggs and young in the nests of Sigelus
silens.”
,t “ In Natal,” writes Mr. Ayres, “ these birds feed on caterpillars,
ants, and other insects, in search of which they hop about
amongst the thick creepers, principally frequenting small, low,
isolated bushes. They are weak on the wing, and do not take long
flights, but are migratory, arriving in October and leaving in March.
The gizzard of this bird is most curious, the inner skin is lined with
hair like the hair of a young mouse, and is quite separate from the
flesh of the gizzard.” Mr. Gurney comments on this as follows :
" I t will be recollected that a similar appearance of the stomach
being lined with hair frequently occurs in specimens of Cuculus
canorus, and that these hairs were ascertained by the late Mr.
Thompson of. Belfast to be those of the larvse of the Tiger Moth, on
which the Cuckoo frequently feeds. (See P. Z. S. 1834, p. 29.)