ArEICA>: PARASITIC CUCKOOS — FRIEDMANN 397 



Another new host is the dusky flycatcher {Alseonax adusius), a pan- 

 of which were seen feeding a young Klaas's cuckoo on December 6 in 

 Hottentot's Holland, Cape Pro%'ince, by MacLeod and Murray (1952. 

 p. 22). Still another species of Alseonax, the Uganda pygmy dusky 

 flycatcher {A. minimum jpumilus), may be added to the list, this one 

 on the basis of three records. Williams (1946, p. 138) found a nest 

 of this bhd at Kampala, Uganda, on Apr. 27, 1946, that contamed 

 two fresh eggs of the builder and one very slightly incubated egg of 

 the cuckoo. At Kitale, Kenya Colony, Stoneham (1952, p. 7) found 

 two nestling Klaas's cuckoos, one in each of two nests of this fly- 

 catcher, near the garden of the museum eai'ly in 1952. 



According to Benson (1953, p. 35), the gray tit-babbler (Parisoma 

 plumbeum orientale) has been found to be parasitized in Nyasaland; he 

 gives no further data on it, and Hsts it as an '"apparent" host of Klaas's 

 cuckoo. 



In my book (Friedmann, 1949a, p. 140) I listed the Cape flycatcher 

 {Batis capensis) as a host of this cuckoo solely on Joubert's statement 

 that it was victimized in the Cape Province. Since then MacLeod 

 and Murray (1952, p. 17) have recorded two instances in the Hotten- 

 tot's Holland area, and Stanford (in htt.) sends me the following 

 additional cases. On December 6 at Picnic Bush, Somerset West, 

 Cape Province, he and J. G. ^MacLeod found a young Klaas's cuckoo, 

 not quite ready to fly, completely fiihng a nest of a Cape flvcatcher. 

 Within 30 yards of this nest was another nest of the same species that 

 had had a young Klaas's cuckoo in it a day or two earlier. In this 

 area, in the years 1951-1952, Stanford and MacLeod found a total of 

 five instances of the Cape flycatcher serving as host for Klaas's 

 cuckoo. 



To the previous meager data on the Cape paradise fl^^catcher 

 (Terpsiphone perspiciUata) may be added another instance, recorded 

 at Hottentot's Hofland by 2\IacLeod and Murray (1952). The related 

 Terpsiphone viridis is a bird of which two races, the nominate one and 

 suahehca, have been previously listed as victims of Klaas's cuckoo. It 

 seems that the race spcciosa may serve in this capacity as weU. Chapin 

 (1953, p. 725) mentions a nest at Avakubi that contained one egg of the 

 builder and one egg that probably was of this cuckoo. 



The rufescent swamp warbler (Calamocichia refcsccns) is a bird not 

 hitherto recorded as a victim of Klaas's cuckoo. Chapin writes me 

 that near Tshibati, Belgian Congo, on Feb. 27, 1954, he found a nest 

 of this bird high up on a fork of a stalk of elephant grass that con- 

 tained a weU-feathered nesthng Klaas's cuckoo. The foster pai-ents 

 were scolding^nearb}' as he examined the nest. The race of the host 

 in the eastern Congo is probablj'/oxi. 



