268 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



birds which had bred in Africa somewhere to the south and migrated 

 through western Darfur to spend the nonbreeding season and molt 

 in the northern Sudan. Also, in November and December south- 

 bound migrants, apparently European birds, were noted. 



This species occurs in the Acacia savannas, especially in the more 

 densely wooded parts, but not in real forest. It occurs at sea level ^° 

 and as high as 5,000 feet above the sea. In Ethiopia it apparently 

 is numerous nowhere ; in Kenya Colony, only when the migrants add 

 to the number of resident birds does the species become common, and 

 then only locally. It seems that the southern European and western 

 Asiatic birds migrate chiefly down the Nile Valley and the Red Sea, 

 thereby passing on each side of Ethiopia, but only a relatively few 

 birds actually migrate to or through that country. 



The fact that in the ju venal plumage the remiges are rufescent 

 suggests that this type of coloration may be of phylogenetic signifi- 

 cance, in which case the Asiatic species Clamator coromandus would 

 appear to be the nearest to the ancestral stock of the genus. 



CLAMATOR JACOBINUS JACOBINUS (Boddaert) 



Cuculus jacobmus Boddaert, Tabl. PI. Enlum., p. 53, No. 872, 1783: Coro- 

 mandel coast of India (ex Daubenton). 



Specimens collected: 



Three male adults, one female adult, and one unsexed, Gato River 

 near Gardula, Ethiopia, April 7 to May 6, 1912. 



One male, immature, Turturo, Ethiopia, June 16, 1912. 



One male, immature, Reishat, Rudolf, Kenya Colony, May 25, 1912. 



The geographic variations of the pied crested cuckoo are rather 

 slight, and, as far as the African birds are concerned, are easily 

 confused because of the migration of the southern race northwards 

 into the territory of the typical form. Hartert ^^ has separated the 

 birds of tropical and northern Africa from those of India on the 

 basis of slightly larger size, and has revived the name pica Hemprich 

 and Ehrenberg for the former. The wing lengths of Indian speci- 

 mens are given as 146-153 (average 149.25), while those of African 

 birds are given as 144.5-163 millimeters (average 153). It seems 

 questionable as to whether races based on such small size differences, 

 with such extensive overlapping, are worth recognizing. Inasmuch 

 as this size difference is the only distinctive character of pica^ I feel 

 it better to consider pica a synonym of jacohinus. Sclater ^- appar- 

 ently has reached the same conclusion as have most workers with 

 the exception of Hartert, Oberholser, and Stresemann. The last 



6<»Zedlitz, Jouni. f. Ornith., 1910, p. 743, found it on Dahlak Island, Red Sea. 

 "Nov. Zool., vol. 22, 1915, pp. 253-254. 

 «Syst. Avium Ethiop., 1924, p. 181. 



