AFRICAN PARASITIC CUCKOOS — FRIEDMANN 383 



Cuculus canorus gularis Stephens 



African yellow-billed cuckoo 



Information about this bird accumulates very slowly; however, it 

 is possible to add a new species to the small list of its known hosts. 

 Mr. H. ]M. Miles, of Salisbury, writes me that a correspondent of his, 

 J. R. Peters, found a nest of Layard's bulbui {Pycnonotus tricolor 

 layardi) containing a young yellow-billed cuckoo on Oct. 9, 1955, at a 

 spot called Guinea Fowl, 12 miles southeast of Gwelo, Southern 

 Rhodesia. At that time the nest contained two newly hatched 

 bulbuls as well as the 3^oung cuckoo. Ten days later the nest was 

 revisited and was found to hold only the .young parasite. It was at 

 this visit that the young cuckoo, then well feathered, was identified 

 as Cuculus canorus gularis. 



Neuby-Varty (1950, p. 38) found the gray-headed sparrow (Passer 

 griseus diffusus) to be victimized in Southern Rhodesia. At his farm 

 'Torre," near Marandellas (no date given), he found a nest of this 

 sparrow in a natural hole in a sugarbush containing two eggs of the 

 sparrow and one of the African yellow-billed cuckoo. The egg of the 

 latter was very light bluish gray with blotches of slate and dark 

 greenish olive brown, mostly at the thick end but also scattered over 

 the rest of the egg, and measured 23.5 X 16 mm. This agrees very 

 well with the fully authenticated oviduct egg described by the same 

 observer (Neuby-Varty, 1948, p. 158) two years earher. This record 

 is the first indication that this cuckoo lays in nests in holes in trees, 

 the few previous records involving open nests in exposed situations. 



In the Victoria Memorial Aluseum, Salisbury, is an egg, supposedly 

 of this cuckoo, collected by D. Townley at Rumani, Southern Rho- 

 desia, Dec. 20, 1929, from a nest of an unidentified babbler. The label 

 on the egg bears the words "identity sure," and the egg is not unlike 

 authentic ones of this cuckoo. No babbler has yet been recorded as a 

 victim of this bird, but this case must remain unidentified. 



Cuculus solitarius Stephens 



Red-chested cuckoo 



Plates 1-3 



Our knowledge of several phases of the life history of this cuckoo 

 has increased greatl}' in the past few years. For easier reference and 

 discussion these data maj- be treated under various subheadings. 



Eggs and Egg Laying 



When compiling the data for my book I was unable to find an 

 instance of more than one egg of this cuckoo in any single nest. Tait 

 (1952, p. 135) has since recorded such a case — a nest of Cossypha 



