AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 71 



taken from nests of Arachnothera longirostris show a \\Teath of small 

 spots of brown, less reddish than those of the host. Another egg, also 

 attributed to this cuckoo, is so densely marked ^^'ith bro\\Ti and gray 

 as to be unusually dark in color. The eggs of this cuckoo are short, 

 broad, and oval to elliptical in shape, the pores fairly coarse for so 

 small an egg. The eggs are very thin shelled for a cuckoo (the weight 

 of the shell only 5.1 percent of that of the full egg, as compared with 

 7.4 percent in C. caprius), only slightly thicker than the eggs of the 

 sunbirds. Baker (1942, p. 203) gives the dimensions ol the eggs of this 

 cuckoo as averaging 16.9 X 12.3 mm., the maximal ones being 18.0 X 

 12.6 and 16.3 X 12.8 mm., the minimal ones 15.1 X 12.0 and 15.9 X 

 11.2 mm. Schonwetter's figiu-es give a range of 15.4-18.5 X 12.0-12.9 

 mm., but in his table (p. 587) gives the foUoA\"ing measiu-ements (in 

 mm.): length 16.9; \vidth 12.3; weight of empty shell 0.07 grams; 

 thickness of shell 0.05; weight of full egg 1.37 grams; relative weight 

 of egg shell to that of full egg 5.1 percent. 



It should be mentioned that there is stiU some uncertainty about 

 the variational limits of the eggs of C. maculatus and C. xanihorhynchus. 

 Baker (1942, p. 80), who had seen more of each than anyone else, 

 admitted that the eggs of the two "are not individually distinguish- 

 able . . . ," yet he described an egg type of C. xanthorhynchus which 

 seems quite different from any he mentioned of C. maculatus (see oiu' 

 description of C. xanthorhynchus for further data). 



6. C. xanthorhynchus: said by Baker (1942) and by Schonwetter 

 (1964, p. 569) to be similar in their size and color variations to those 

 of C. maculatus; white, tinged Anth yellow, or pinkish, and flecked in 

 various tones of brown and reddish, achieving a fair resemblance to 

 the eggs of the hosts Arachnothera longirostris and Aethopyga siparaja 

 seheriae and only moderately similar to those of other hosts of the 

 genera Dicaeum, Cisticola, Orthotomus, Trichastoma, Alcippe, and 

 Napofhera. In the case of eggs laid in nests of the little spider hunter, 

 Arachnothera, Baker (1942, p. 80) wrote that "an egg has been evolved 

 which agrees wonderfully well mth those of the Spider-Hunter, some 

 indeed of the eggs of the Violet Cuckoo have to be weighed before 

 identification can be accepted. These eggs are pinkish, nearly always 

 pale, vdth a ring of reddish spots around the larger end, well defined 

 in both the Cuckoos' and the Spider-Hunters' eggs . . . Eggs inter- 

 mediate between the two types simulating Sunbirds and Spider- 

 Hunters are also to be found and are in most cases accepted . . . . " 

 It should be clarified that Baker was vTiting about eggs of both 

 xanthorhynchus and maculatus in this sentence, the eggs shnulating 

 those of the sunbu-ds being maculatus. In Burma, Smythies (1953) 

 found xanthorhynchus eggs to vary from pure white to pink in their 

 ground color, with a -sATcath of reddish flecks at the larger end. 



