J /TL
Mixxbern. B ros . imp. C.RKAT SPOTTED CUCKOO. ■
Oxylophus glandariiis (Lirai.).
GEEAT SPOTTED CUCKOO.
OXYLOPHUS GLANDARIUS (.Linn.).
Cuculus glandarius, Linn. S. N. i. p. 169 (1766) ; Naum. y.
p. 237.
Coccystes glandarius, Yarr. ed. 4, ii. p. 408 ; Dresser, y.
• p. 219.
Coucou-geai, Coucou tacheté, French ; Eichel - heher,
German ; Cuco real, Spanish.
Two instances only of the occurrence of this species
in our Islands are on record : the first of these was
taken alive off the coast of Connemara in 1842, and is,
according to Mr. Saunders (‘ Manual of British Birds,’
p. 279), still preserved in the Museum of Trinity
College, Dublin; the same authority (Joe. supra cit.)
informs us that a second was shot near Bellingham,
Northumberland, on August 5th, 1870, and is now in
the Newcastle Museum. This Cuckoo is by no means
a common bird in any part of Europe as politically
defined, with the exception of Spain and Portugal ; in
certain districts of the former country it was, in my
experience, abundant as a summer visitor, and as I only
once saw the bird at large elsewhere, the following
notes, from personal acquaintance, refer exclusively to
Spain. The Spotted Cuckoo is extremely local in its