NO. 4 AVIAN GENUS CLAMATOR — FRIEDMANN II 



not belong to the most perfectly advanced Cuckoo. The more primitive 

 forms of parasitic Cuckoo, such as members of the genus Clamator, 

 containing the Great Spotted Cuckoo, have probably had an infinitely 

 longer existence in their present form and condition than such beauti- 

 fully perfected forms as our Common Cuckoo, and we should there- 

 fore expect primitive Cuckoos to have acquired a more perfect 

 adaptation in their eggs than those Cuckoos more highly developed." 

 The phylogenetic relationships of the species of Clamator, as sug- 

 gested by all the data brought together in this paper, ethological, 

 morphological (chiefly plumage coloration and eggshell pattern), and 

 distributional, as shown in the diagram (fig. 2), reveal that jacobinus 



A. glandarius 

 ,3. coromandus'' 



1. jacobinus-;'' 



^2. levaillantii 



Fig. 2. — Relationships within the genus Clamator. 



is the most primitive member, and that from it two lines of descent 

 bifurcated. One, rather short one, led to levaillantii; the other longer 

 one led to coromandus and from this to the "climax" species, glan- 

 darius. The geographic movements undergone by Clamator during its 

 differentiation and dispersal are shown in figure 3. 



FEATURES OF BROOD PARASITISM IN CLAMATOR 



The genus Clamator evolved from an earlier stock that was already 

 parasitic, as is indicated by the fact that all of its species are parasitic. 

 It is understandable, therefore, that a comparative survey of their 

 habits affords no clues as to the origin of this mode of reproduction, 

 although it does reveal much of the course of the development 

 parasitism underwent in this particular genus. 



Compared with a highly specialized group, such as the species of 

 Cuculus, Clamator is relatively simpler and shows none of the de- 

 velopment of inf raspecific gentes, each with its elaborate, adaptive egg 



