NO. 4 AVIAN GENUS CLAMATOR — FRIEDMANN 83 



breeding season is the fact that it does leave India . . ." In 1962 I 

 went over the material in the British Museum with a hope of finding 

 some clues that Grant and Mackworth-Praed might have overlooked, 

 and to examine recently acquired specimens that they had not seen. 

 My results suggested a greater spread of months for molting of 

 African birds, which clouded or obscured the whole picture to the 

 degree that it was not feasible to demonstrate Asiatic origins by 

 molting dates. 



Clancey (1960, pp. 27-31) has, I think, made the only convincing 

 contribution to this problem. He stated that not only do north Indian 

 birds (pica) migrate to Africa, but he found that so do many of the 

 smaller, typical jacobinits of southern, peninsular India and Ceylon, 

 The birds of this subspecies are identifiable by their smaller size 

 and consistently white throats and breasts (like pica in this latter 

 character), and they are known to breed only in India, Assam, Burma, 

 and Ceylon, but they occur in Africa as far south as Nyasaland, 

 Southern Rhodesia, and southern Mozambique. The African records 

 fall between September and April, which agrees with the fact that 

 the birds should be back in India for the breeding season. Unlike 

 north Indian pica, the race jacobinus is only partially migratory, some 

 individuals remaining throughout the year in southern India and 

 Ceylon while others reach Africa where they disperse over a wide 

 area. The fact tliat some south Indian birds do migrate to Africa 

 increases the probability that similar movements occur in north Indian 

 pica as well. 



The migration of C. jacohiniis between India and Africa, does have 

 some peculiar features. Ali {in litt.) has informed me that as far 

 as he knows no other long-distance land migrant arrives in India at 

 the commencement of the southwest monsoon season as this cuckoo 

 apparently does. He further assured me that there is no evidence that 

 any seasonal lack of insect food could operate as the reason for this 

 bird to leave India after the close of the breeding season. 



As discussed elsewhere in this report (p. 51) it seems that the 

 southern African population {serratus) of C. jacobinus is the oldest, 

 most primitive segment of the species, and of the genus, as it exists 

 today, and that after it gave rise to pica in equatorial Africa, the 

 latter spread to Asia and became established there. The present 

 migration of pica between northern India and Africa thus is an an- 

 nual reflection of an original movement in the past history of the 

 species, a situation existing (or, at least, so interpreted) in many 

 other migratory birds. Ticehurst (1922, p. 531) postulated a route 



