34 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 2 6 5. 



The migratory movements of Haas, cupreus, and caprius offer no 

 suggestive hints as to their respective loci of origin, except that they 

 began in the tropical areas of Africa, not in the southern part. 



Premigrational swarming has been reported for two of the glossy 

 cuckoos. Chisholm (1935, p. 257) wrote of C. basalis that it has been 

 known to assemble in loose flocks of hundreds of individuals at Cape 

 York late in summer, "apparently bound for northern islands . . . ." 

 Ayres (1884, p. 224) was informed that toward the end of summer in 

 South Africa didric cuckoos (C. caprius) "were to be found in hundreds 

 along the Rhinoster river, near Cronstadt, where they were doubtless 

 collecting to migrate . . . ." 



Courtship behavior 



The courtship beha\aor of the glossy cuckoos has an evolutionary 

 interest in that it involves an atavistic behavior pattern that can 

 hardly be looked upon as other than a vestige of a distant past when 

 the primordial, ancestral cuckoo stock was not yet parasitic in its 

 breeding. The courting male has the habit of feeding the courted 

 female as if she were a fledgling, and the hen, in turn responds like a 

 young bird with fluttering wings and ruffled body plumage. This 

 pattern has been noted in four species— lucidus, klaas, cupreus, end 

 caprius, and since the first is fairly far removed from the other three 

 within the phylogeny of the species of Chrysococcyx, it may be assumed 

 that some of the other species will be found to have the feeding pattern 

 as well. In any event, there is no sign, nor is there any reason to expect 

 one, of an evolutionary development of this ethological trait within 

 the genus. It can only be looked upon as an ancestral habit occasionaUy 

 coming to the surface in these cuckoos. That it appears to be more 

 frequent in this group than in other genera of cuckoos is to be connected 

 with the fact that the glossy cuckoos are also more given to feeding 

 their fledged young than are other parasitic species. (Cuculus pallidus 

 is known to feed fledglings of its own kind, but other species of Cuculus 

 have not been reported doing so.) 



To give some idea of how closely this courtship behavior parallels 

 that of fledgling feeding, we may take the observations of Haydock 

 (1950, p. 150) on the yeUow-bellied emerald cuckoo, C. cupreus. He 

 saw a female perched on a bare branch of a largely defoliated tree, 

 which circumstances made observation much easier. A male was 

 perched on a branch a little higher up, calling loudly. He then flew 

 down to the female, and, with wings drooping and tail raised abnost 

 verticaUy, he bowed and bobbed up and down in front of her and then 

 presented her with a large hairy caterpillar, transferring this directly 



