NO. 4 AVIAN GENUS CLAMATOR — FRIEDMANN 35 



domed nests of twigs and coarse grasses high up in trees — nests quite 

 similar in their main features to those of the magpies, the parasites' 

 primary fosterers. From laying eggs in these domed, internally 

 dusky, if not dark, somewhat tunnellike tgg chambers of Spreo 

 albicollis it was not a great step to using the darker nests of true 

 tree-hole nesters, of other species of starlings, such as Lamprocolius 

 nitens and L. caudatus and Acridotheres tristis. More of a change 

 was involved in the shift from these to terrestrial burrowing hosts 

 such as Spreo hicolor, but even here there may have been a transition 

 stage, as this starling is said to nest in a variety of sites such as are 

 used by Sturnus vulgaris as well as in its more usual earth burrow. 

 Priest (1948, p. 118) indicated that this variety of nesting sites in- 

 cludes crevices on walls, under the eaves of houses, in trees, as well 

 as breeding in tunnels in soft river banks or cuttings, or in mine 

 shafts. I am informed by Dr. Winterbottom that the nest record 

 files of the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology extend 

 this list of sites to include haystacks and even a crevice of a concrete 

 platform in the sea (obviously near shore). 



Once the cuckoo had become used to the pied starling as a fosterer, 

 it could be expected to be attracted to it regardless of just where the 

 nest was built. From terrestrial burrow nest-sites of this starling 

 it was no great change to utilizing other similar nests, such as that 

 of the ground woodpecker, Geocolaptes olivaceus. The pied starling 

 is the most frequently used host in eastern South Africa today. 



A partial parallel to what transpired in Clamator glandarius, as 

 outlined above, has also been reported occasionally for the Indian koel, 

 Eudynamis scolopacea, a cuckoo parasitic also very largely, in fact 

 almost solely, on crows. Baker (1942, p. 197) listed two starlings, 

 Acridotheres tristis and Graculipica nigricollis, among its known 

 hosts, the former one or two times, the latter more often. However, 

 as far as known, the koel has not adapted itself to terrestrial-nesting 

 hosts. Baker Hsted 209 eggs of the koel in his collection. Of these, 

 16 were laid in nests of the black-necked mynah, Graculipica nigricol- 

 lis, 2 were with Acridotheres tristis, 6 in nests of 2 species of magpies, 

 and the other 185 in nests of 2 species of crows. 



Even the European cuckoo, C^lcul^(s canorus, has been known to 

 lay occasionally in the underground nests of the wheatear, Oenanthe 

 oenanthe. Furtherm.ore, and more directly pertinent, it may be re- 

 called that one Qgg of Clamator jacobinus has been reported from a 

 ground-tunnel nest of a kingfisher, Halcyon a. alhiventris, and 

 another from a tree-hole nest of a sparrow, Petronia superciliaris. 



