30 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 2 65 



Typical lucidus breeds in New Zealand and Chatham Islands, possibly 

 on Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands, but the detailed data all have to 

 do with New Zealand. The birds begin to leave there late in January 

 with the main migratory exodus in February, a few stragglers delaying 

 their departure until March and even early April, with occasional 

 wintering birds left behind. They begin to return there in mid-Septem- 

 ber, with the bulk of the birds arriving in October and the latest 

 definite migrant record being November 5. Their nonbreeding grounds 

 are in the Solomon Islands, where the earliest arrivals have been 

 reported on March 16 and the latest departures on September 25. 

 Their migration route, however, is not yet known with certainty. 

 Mayr (1932, pp. 2-5) wrote that "on their way from New Zealand to 

 the Solomon Islands these birds could travel either via New Caledonia 

 and the New Hebrides, or via the Australian coast and eastern New 

 Guinea. For the former route, which would be nearer and more direct, 

 there is no evidence. AU the specimens collected in New Caledonia and 

 the New Hebrides are layardi." Fell (1947, p. 512) wrote that the data 

 available to him indicated that birds leaving New Zealand in February, 

 March, and April flew "... northwest from various headlands 

 across the Tasman Sea via Norfolk or Lord Howe Islands, and then 

 northward to the Solomons. The complete lack of specimens from 

 New Caledonia and New Hebrides, although other subspecies are 

 well known there, seems to show that the New Zealand subspecies 

 cannot normally use that route, if ever. Fig. 7 shows the suggested 

 route as also that probable for the Tasmanian subspecies C. I. plagosus, 

 which winters in islands from Lombok to New Guinea. The routes of 

 the two subspecies are roughly parallel, C. I. lucidus being displaced 

 about 25° east of the other. The routes seem to correspond roughly 

 with the direction of the South-east Trade Winds. It seems then that 

 the cuckoos are wind-borne from their respective southern breeding 

 lands to their tropical wintering places — and on the return flight are 



headed into the wind. On neither flight do they fly across the wind " 



Van Tyne and Berger's map (fig. 4) shows an amazing direct migration 

 path over 2000 miles of open ocean. While Fell's statement is correct 

 as a general statement, this does not rule out the possibility of some 

 individuals of typical lucidus migrating by way of New Caledonia. As 

 a matter of fact, there is one such record, recently reported. Galbraith 

 and Galbraith (1962 p. 35) found that one of Layard's old specimens 

 from Ausevata, New Caledonia, collected on April 26, 1877, is lucidus 

 and not, as previously assumed, layardi. 



The TSice plagosus, which breeds in southern Australia and in Tas- 

 mania, winters in the Lesser Sunda Islands (Lombok, Flores, Wetar), 

 in New Guinea, and in the Bismark Archipelago. Its migratory path 

 apparently covers a broad front across much of Australia to New 



