82 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I46 



In a later paper (1931, p. 193) he pointed out that the absence of 

 examples of north Indian birds (pica) in the extensive series collected 

 in southern India (jacobinus) at all times of the year ". . . virtually 

 settles that our northern migrants go to Africa . . ." — a conclusion 

 which has been accepted and implemented, without definite proof, by 

 many others since Whistler's paper. Smythies (1953, p. 326) found 

 that the jacobin cuckoo "... seems to leave Burma altogether in the 

 winter, possibly migrating to Africa." In his recent compendium on 

 Indian ornithology, Ripley (1961, p. 175) stated that pica (serratus 

 of his book) reaches, on its winter migration, Gujarat, Bombay, 

 Andhra, and northwestern Madras. ". , . The main wintering range 

 appears to be to the west, south of the Sahara in Africa. Rainy 

 season wanderings of this form and the next (jacobinus) prevent 

 exact definition of the breeding zones in central India." Meinertz- 

 hagen (1954, p. 308) reported that in Arabia, a presumably logical 

 area through which migrants between India and Africa might be 

 expected to pass, the species was known as a migrant in the south- 

 western part of that peninsula, where specimens were obtained near 

 Aden on March 31 and April 22, in the Amiri district in May, at 

 Hadda near Mecca on April 2. He noted that a pair was obtained in 

 Asir on June 26, which "may denote breeding." If these were breed- 

 ing birds, and not delayed migrants, they constitute the only evidence 

 for the pied crested cuckoo in Arabia other than on migration. On 

 the basis of extensive personal experience with both Asiatic and 

 African birds, Meinertzhagen concluded that some of the birds that 

 breed in northern India and Baluchistan appear to go to Africa in 

 the northern winter. 



Grant and Mackworth-Praed (1948, pp. 171-172) attempted to 

 study the migration of these birds on the basis of the dates of molting 

 specimens in the British Museum. They started with the opinion that 

 Indian specimens should be in molt from September to November, 

 South African breeders, from April to June, and birds from other 

 parts of Africa, from June to August. The fact that in India birds 

 taken from September to November were in molt was in line with 

 these dates, and from all these considerations it was thought that any 

 molting examples taken in Africa during September, October, and 

 November should be Indian migrants. Their examination failed to find 

 any such material and they were forced to conclude that none of the 

 African records could be considered definitely as migrants from 

 India, and they ended with the statement that the ". . . only evidence 

 we still have of this species visiting Africa from India in the non- 



