84 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I46 



from northern India to Africa for a number of Indian breeding 

 species that are absent from there in winter ; among them are Agro- 

 bates g. familiar is, Caprimulgus e. unwini, Merops apiaster, Glare ola 

 pratincola, Cuculus canorus, and others. To these may be added 

 another cuculine species, the lesser cuckoo, Cuculus poliocephaius, 

 that breeds in Asia, beyond the Himalayas, and winters in numbers 

 in East Africa (Moreau, 1937b, p. 42), while AH (in litt.) informed 

 me of similar migratory behavior in Indian breeding Merops super- 

 ciliosus persicus, Coracias garrulus semenoivi, and Muscicapa striata 

 neumanni. 



Before leaving C. jacohinus, it is necessary to discuss the melanistic 

 morph of the race serratus in connection with its migratory move- 

 ments. This black phase is frequent in the eastern parts of the breed- 

 ing range of serratus — Natal, Cape Province, Orange Free State, etc., 

 and, like the pale morph, this one is absent from South Africa during 

 the southern winter. These melanistic individuals are, in a sense, 

 critical material, as the pale morphs could not be distinguished from 

 similar birds resident in more tropical areas to which they presumably 

 migrate. Yet, aside from a small number of black-plumaged birds 

 (four), this phase has been conspicuously absent from collections made 

 throughout Africa outside of their southeastern breeding range. The 

 four black-phase birds, indistinguishable from southeast African 

 serratus, that have been taken are as follows : At Port Gentil, Gabon 

 (November 3), south of Lake Chad (July), at Kulme, Darfur (July 

 11), and at Sagon River, Ethiopia (June 4). These pose a very 

 puzzling problem that cannot be completely resolved. These have been 

 discussed briefly in our account of polymorphism (see p. 71) but our 

 interest in them at this point is in their implications concerning their 

 geographic movements. The November Port Gentil, Gabon, speci- 

 men, in very fresh plumage, can hardly have been a migrant from 

 southeastern Africa, where at that time of the year serratus is breed- 

 ing. The dates and the respective stages of molt and of feather wear 

 of the other examples do not fit closely the seasonal chronology of 

 the southern birds, and in this respect they suggest that they might be 

 considered as individual (and rare) instances of melanism of the 

 more northern race pica. In southeastern Africa serratus is dimorphic, 

 and the melanistic phase is common, but if the four northern records 

 of black-phase birds, listed above, are not serratus, or, at least, are 

 not unquestionably of that subspecies, it would follow that not a single 

 completely convincing example of the black morph of serratus has 

 yet been collected away from its breeding range. There is no inherent 



