48 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 223 



rected). Although he collected only one nestling cuckoo finch from 

 a nest found on August 9, he probably observed other instances, as 

 he wrote that nearly all the first broods reared by the brown grass 

 warbler there are young cuckoo finches. No young brown grass 

 warblers were noted in nests containing the young parasites. Chees- 

 man considered it likely that the cuckoo finches dispose of the eggs or 

 the young of the host, "whereas with larger species of Cisticola they 

 were not always successful in getting rid of them." 



Rattler grass warbler: Cisticola chiniana Smith ^ 



Two races of the rattler grass warbler have been found to serve 

 as hosts for the cuckoo finch — C. c. victoria, and C. c. ukamha.^^ 

 V. G. L. van Someren (1922, p. 147) found a young cuckoo finch in 

 a nest of the former race (there listed as C. rvjicapilla Jischeri) , More 

 recently (in litt., November 23, 1950) he informed me that he found 

 eggs and young of the cuckoo finch in nests of the race ukarnba in the 

 Nairobi area in May and June. Chapin (1954, pp. 407-410) listed 

 C. chiniana as a host of the cuckoo finch, apparently based on van 

 Someren 's records. 



Singing grass warbler: Cisticola cantons (Heuglin) ^^ 



Cheesman (in Cheesman and Sclater, 1935, p. 617; 1936, p. 194) 

 found the nominate race of the singing grass warbler parasitized in 

 northwestern Ethiopia. He collected a nestling of the parasite from 

 a nest of the host on August 6 and another from another nest on 

 October 9. He noted that in then- first nest, a pair of singing warblers 

 had reared a young cuckoo finch. Their second nest was de- 

 stroyed. Their third nest (October 9) contained one unfledged cuckoo 

 finch. This nest fell and was destroyed a few days later. The Mack- 

 worth-Praed and Grant (1955, p. 480) statement that the singing 

 grass warbler is much parasitized by the cuckoo finch (incorrectly 

 called the pin-tailed widow bird) was apparently based on Cheesman's 

 data. 



Rufous grass warbler: Cisticola galactotes (Temminck) ** 



Cheesman (in Cheesman and Sclater, 1935, p. 619; 1936, p. 194) 

 found a nest containing one young rufous grass warbler and two young 

 cuckoo finches ready to fl}^ in northwestern Ethiopia on November 22. 



i> Drymoica chiniana A. Smith, Illustrations of the zoology of South Africa . . . , vol. 2, Aves, 1843, pi. 

 79 (near Kurrichane). 



M Cisticola chiniana mctoria Lynes, This, ser. 12, vol. 6, Cistienla supplement, 1930, p. 264 (new name for 

 C. fischeri van Someren; Victoria Nyanza Basin, type from Kisumu). Cisticola chiniana ukamba Lynes, 

 Ibis, ser. 12, vol. 6, Cisticola supplement, 1930, p. 267 (Ukamba Province, Kenya). 



»' Drymocca cantons HcuglLn, Ibis, ser. 2, vol. S, 18G9, p. 96 (Abyssinia, type from Gondar). 



" MaluTUs galactotes Temminck, Nouveau recueil de planches celeries d'oiseaux, livr. 11, vol. 3, 1823, pi. 

 65, fig. 1 (New Holland, South Africa, apud Lynes). 



