42 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 2 65 



C. lucidus plagosus. 



The south Austrahan and Tasmanian race of the glossj^ cuckoo has 

 such a long list of recorded hosts, in contrast with much shorter list 

 for the New Zealand race and the absence of such lists for some of 

 the other subspecies of C. lucidus, that it seems advisable to discuss 

 it apart from its conspecific relatives. Thanks to the kind assistance 

 of numerous Australian observers I have been able to add to the 

 published data many additional cases of the parasitism of this cuckoo, 

 and now have a corpus of some 167 records involving 75 species.^ No 

 attempt has been made to "break down" these records to subspecies 

 because there exists no agreed-upon reference list of valid races of 

 Australian birds. 



Of the 75 species included in the list 51 are known as fosterers of 

 this cuckoo on the basis of single records onl}^; 12 others have been 

 reported twice as victims of the glossy cuckoo, 5 have been so noted 

 three times, 2 four times, and only 5 have been noted as fosterers 

 five or more times. In descending order of frequency the most im- 

 portant hosts are the following: yellow-tailed thornbill, Acanthiza 

 chrysorrhoa, 40 times; brown thornbill, Acanthiza pusilla, 13 times; 

 straited thornbill, Acanthiza lineata, and buff-tailed thornbill, 

 Acanthiza reguloides, 7 times each; white-tliroated warbler, Gerygone 

 olivacea, 6 times; brown warbler, Gerygone richmondi, and little 

 thornbill, Acanthiza nana, 4 times each; large-billed warbler, Gerygone 

 magnirostris, brown weebill, Smicrornis brevirostris, blue wren, Malurus 

 cyaneus, yellow-tipped diamond bird, Pardalotus striatus, and j^elloM'- 

 ^^'inged honeyeater, Meliornis novaehollandiae, 3 times each. 



Of the 75 species (89 species and subspecies) of birds parasitized 

 by this cuckoo, one-third (25 species or 38 species and subspecies) are 

 not known to be used by C. basalis; all the others serve to unequal 

 degrees as hosts to both parasites. 



Thornbills are thus the favorite hosts of this cuckoo, ^^■ith the 

 Gerygone warblers next. Thornbills, with 8 species and 71 records of 

 parasitism, account for a little over 10 percent of all the hosts and 

 over 30 percent of all instances of parasitism. This figure is un- 



^ For pertinent published references see: Barnard and Barnard 1925, p. 261; 

 Barrett 1905, p. 22; Campbell 1898a, pp. 144-146; 1901, pp. 582-583; Carter 

 1924, p. 228; Cayley 1950, p. 71; Chandler 1910, p. 245; Cornwall 1907, p. 192; 

 Dove 1916, p. 96; Fletcher 1915, p. 166; Hall 1898, p. 75; 1901, p. 128; Hanscombe 

 1915, p. 160; Hobbs 1961, p. 42; Howe 1905, p. 35; Jackson 1908, p. 202; Linton 

 1930, pp. 304-307; Littlejohns 1943, pp. 250-251; Makatsch 1955, p. 188; Mathews 

 1918, p. 359; Mattingley 1906, p. 66; McGilp 1929, p. 298; North 1893, p. 373; 

 1897, p. 26; 1912, pp. 20-23; Orton and Sandland 1913 p. 78; Ross 1913, p. 280; 

 Rowley 196.5, pp. 274-275; Sandland and Orton 1922, p. 137; Serventy and 

 Whitell 1962, pp. 269-270; Smith 1926, p. 296; White 1908a, p. 31; 1910, p. 49; 

 191.5, pp. 1.52-153. 



