PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Black Cuckoo: Cuculus clamosus 



The following birds have been found to be parasitized by this species 

 (all races combined) : 



Pinarornis plumosus Sharpe 

 Prionops plumata poliocephala 



(Stanley) 

 Dryoscopus cubla hamatus 



Hartlaub 

 Laniarius ferrugineus pondoensis 



Roberts 

 L. f. natalensis Roberts 

 L. f. limpopoensis Roberts 

 L. f. transvaalensis Roberts 

 L. /. tongensis Roberts 

 L. f. aethiopicus (Gmelin) 

 L. barbarus atrococcineus 



(Burchell) 



records 

 2 



L. leucorhynchus (Hartlaub) 

 L. luhderi (Reichenow) 

 Malaconotus o. olivaceus (Shaw) 

 Oriolus auratus notatus Peters 

 Pycnonotus barbatus layardi 



Gurney 

 Cossypha n. natalensis Smith 

 C. c. caffra (Linnaeus) 

 C. h. heuglini Hartlaub 

 Melaenornis pammelaina (Stanley) 

 Prinia m. maculosa (Boddaert) 

 P. subflava melanorhyncha (Jardine 



and Fraser) 



records 

 1 

 1 

 1 

 2 



Of the 16 species of hosts, 6 also are known to be parasitized by the 

 red-chested cuckoo, but 3 of these are included herein on the basis of 

 single records, and 3 on the basis of two records each. Furthermore, 

 one of these, Prionops plumata, is known as a host of the red-chested 

 cuckoo only on the basis of its having been seen with a recently fledged 

 young of that parasite and not on the basis of an actual nest record. 

 The likelihood of this being a valid instance of parasitism must be ac- 

 cepted with some reservation since a fledgling cuckoo might attract 

 the attention of birds other than those that actually reared it. 



Not only are shrikes the chief hosts of the black cuckoo, but also 

 the involved species of this group are not the same as those parasitized 

 by the jacobin cuckoo, Clamator jacobinus. That bird parasitizes the 

 fiscal shrike, Lanius collaris, very frequently. The black cuckoo has 

 not yet been found to use this wide-ranging, common bird as a host, 

 but the yellow-billed cuckoo does use it. The only overlapping host is 

 the boubou, Laniarius ferrugineus, and for this species there is only a 

 single record of parasitism by the jacobin cuckoo, whereas it is the 

 commonest fosterer of the black cuckoo. 



As in the case of the red-chested cuckoo, all the hosts of the black 

 cuckoo are open-nesting passerine birds, but within this wide range 

 of potential victims there is relatively little overlap in the host prefer- 

 ences of the two parasites. The instances of homoxenia between the 

 black and the red-chested cuckoos involve 37 percent of the hosts 

 but only 25 percent of the total records of the former species. 



The eggs of the black cuckoo are variable, but so far as I know, 

 at least in southern and eastern Africa (typical clamosus) , they do not 

 resemble and, hence, are not apt to be mistaken by their observers for 



