AVIAN GENUS CHRTSOCOCCYX 35 



from his bill to hers. She accepted and swallowed this gift, the cock 

 bird calling loudly with his head held well back while she did so. 

 The entire performance was repeated shortly afterward, and then 

 coition was attempted but was not accomplished successfully. 



In the case of C. klaas, Winterbottom (1939, p. 716) wrote that he 

 watched a pair of these cuckoos in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). 

 "The male, at least three times while we were watching, caught in- 

 sects, which it gave to the female. It seemed in a very excited state, 

 and hopped about her with a good deal of posturing, in which the 

 tail played a great part, now lifted aloft like a Wren's, now depressed 

 and held sideways, but remaining silent . . . ." 



Beven (1943, p. 237) recorded similar behavior in the didric, C. 

 caprius, at Oudsthoorn, South Africa, on October 10. He noted that 

 the cock bird gave its usual caU which was answered by the hen, the 

 latter becoming more insistent and frequent as the cock came closer. 

 This was seen a number of times, and each time the male brought and 

 offered caterpillars to the female. On one occasion the cock had to 

 wait with a caterpillar in his bill while the hen was still attempting to 

 swallow one he had given her previously. Jackson (1938, pp. 500- 

 502) also saw a male didric feeding a female several insects. "On each 

 occasion, after presenting it, he faced the female with tail expanded 

 and erect, and bowed to her several times, first to one side and then 

 to the other . . . ." 



Watson and Bull (1950, p. 226) noted courtship feeding in lucidus 

 in New Zealand, and even suggested that Hursthouse's 1944 record 

 may have been a courtship affair and not a fledgling being fed by an 

 adult as originally described. Fitzgerald (1960, pp. 9-10) has given 

 other instances of courtship feeding in this cuckoo. 



Inasmuch as it is not known how regularly and in what quantity 

 male glossy cuckoos offer food to their courtship partners, it is not 

 possible to estimate the nutrient quota involved for the hens. Royama's 

 recent studies (1966) suggest that in some passerine species, especially 

 the great tit and the blue tit, the food supphed by the male is an 

 important supplement and plays a role in enabling the hens to pro- 

 duce their eggs. The present lack of information causes me to question 

 whether a similar importance exists in the glossy cuckoos, but the 

 possibility should be mentioned. Even if courtship feeding may act 

 as an added source of nutriment to the egg-producing hen, the be- 

 havior that underlies the habit is stiU to be looked upon as atavistic. 



While courtship feeding is the most interesting and the most 

 revealing aspect of courtship behavior in the glossy cuckoos, it is 

 by no means the only one. Sedgwdck (1955, p. 254) commented on a 

 "communal" display of C. lucidus, involving three birds on one occa- 

 sion and five on another, and consisting of a "slow pursuit through the 



