AFRICAN PARASITIC CUCKOOS — FRIEDMANN 401 



reveals that in his garden at Pretoria a didric cuckoo layed an egg in a 

 nest of the Cape wagtail and tlie egg was hatched and the young 

 parasite reared by the host. Recently, Pike (in litt.) saw one of 

 these wagtails feeding a fledghng didric on January 8 in the Transkei 

 District, Cape Province. Skcad (1952, p. 4) lists three more instances 

 in the Capo Province. The Cape wagtail must be considered as a 

 regular host of this cuckoo. 



Winterbottom (1951, p. 15) wiites that the didric is parasitic on the 

 arrow-marked babbler {Turdoides jardinei). 1 know of no definite 

 instance, although it may be recalled that Swynnerton (1911, p. 19) 

 once shot a didric as it was leaving a nest of this babbler. There was 

 no cuckoo's egg in the nest, however. 



The small-billed brown flycatcher (Bradornis imcrorhynchus) is a 

 new host of the didric. Belcher (in litt.) informs me that he collected 

 an egg of this cuckoo from a nest of this bird near Ngong, Kenya 

 Colony. He felt satisfied as to the identity of the species of cuckoo 

 involved. 



The Shoa olive sunbird (Cyanomitra olivacea ragazzii) is a possible 

 addition to our previous list of hosts. Reichenow (1881, p. 16) 

 mentions a didric's egg found by G. A. Fischer in a nest of this sunbird. 

 This egg is said to have been given to the Nehrkom Collection, but 

 the catalog of that collection makes no mention of it. It is not 

 stated how the identification of the Qgg was decided; it may have been 

 a Klaas's cuckoo. 



Skead (1952, p. 5) has tentatively listed the yellow-throated 

 sparrow (Petronia superciliaris) as a victim of the didric cuckoo, but 

 he states that the parasitic egg seen in the one nest involved may have 

 been that of a greater honey-guide. I think the latter is probably 

 correct; the record should be deleted from the list of didric hosts. 



Vieiliot's black weaver (Ploceus nigerrimus) was known previously 

 to be parasitized in Uganda and in the Belgian Congo. To this may 

 be added that Serle (1954, p. 55) found a fledghng didric cuckoo, 

 unable as yet to fly, beneath a nesting colony of these black weavers 

 on January 24 at Kumba, British Cameroons. 



The black-headed weaver {Ploceus 7nelanocephalus) is a species new 

 to our list of victims, but it was actually recorded in this capacity as 

 long ago as 1899 by Louis Petit (1899, pp. 66-67) in the French Congo. 

 The race of the weaver in that area is P. m. cajntalis (Latham). 

 Petit writes that the didric is parasitic on this weaver, and that the 

 latter rears the young parasites. 



Two other races of the black-headed weaver may also be mentioned 

 in the present connection. Indefinite observations by Verheyen 

 (1953, p. 315) suggest that Dubois' black-headed weaver {Ploceus 



