264 BULLETIN" 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Soft parts: Iris dark brown; bare space around eye slate color; 

 bill uniform slaty black; feet pale brownish gray anteriorly, flesh 

 color posteriorly; claws black. 



This race, which has been usually called by Sharpe's name jack- 

 soni,^^ has been definitely recorded from Ethiopia but three times, 

 not counting the present series. Heuglin ^^ described a bird from Ain 

 Saba as a new species, chalyheus, similar to cZamosus but, " * * * 

 his^ pectore ventreque ferrugineo lineatis * * * intus, hasin 

 versus maoulis transversalibus albis nofatis * * *." This descrip- 

 tion obviously refers to the bird currently known as jacksoni, but was 

 early relegated to the synonymy of clmnosus and not revived even 

 when jacksoni was found to occur in southern Ethiopia. Neumann ^'^ 

 procured a subadult male at Schenna, west KafFa district, which he 

 referred to claraosus^ but noted that it had a reddish-brown throat 

 spot. This bird seems to have been more probably an unusual variant 

 of chah/heus. In fact, Neumann suggested that northeastern cla- 

 mosus might prove to be separable from the typical southern birds 

 and be somewhat intermediate between them and gabonensis, in 

 which case Von Heuglin's name would be available for them. Besides 

 these two records, this bird was known from the Charada forest, 

 southern Ethiopia, and now from near Gardula as well. 



The probable reason why chalyheus was so long hidden in the 

 synonymy of clamosus, and jacksoni accepted, is that typical clainosus 

 is found all over eastern Africa side by side with the other. There- 

 fore the two were considered as species, and inasmuch as the plumage 

 sequences of neither were known and Heuglin's bird was apparently 

 subadult it was considered as an obscure plumage incapable of posi- 

 tive identification. Summation of our knowledge of these cuckoos 

 shows definitely that typical clamosws breeds in South Africa, where 

 is occurs from October to March, and is unlniown elsewhere except 

 from March to October, when no birds in breeding condition have 

 been found. In other words, although it is possible to find both forms 

 together in East Africa and Ethiopia, the clamosus individuals are 

 always " wintering " migrants from the south, whereas the chalyheus 

 are resident, breeding birds. Also as the plumages of the immature 

 birds became somewhat known it was found that clamosus never 

 has any rufous on the throat. It therefore follows that Von Heug- 

 lin's bird was not clamosus^ and his name must stand and jacksoni 

 become a synonym of it. 



Cuculus clamosus chalyheus has a rather curiously discontinuous 

 distribution, which may be accounted for more by ecology than by 

 geography. It is very much more of a forest bird than is the typical 



s« Bull. Brit. Orn. CI., vol. 13, 1902, p. 7 ; Toro, Uganda. 

 29Journ. f. Ornitb.. 1862, p. 34. 

 «Idem, 1904, p. 381. 



