NO. 4 AVIAN GENUS CLAMATOR — FRIEDMANN 97 



portance to the parasite. The record involves the nominate race of 

 the kestrel. 



TTpupa epops Linnaeus Hoopoe 



Two records of the South African race (africami) of this bird as 

 a host of the great-spotted cuckoo have come to my attention. Miss 

 M. Courtenay-Latimer (in litf.) found a hoopoe's nest at Bailey Sta- 

 tion, eastern Cape Province, on September 9, 1931, containing four 

 eggs of the hoopoe and one of the cuckoo. One of the hoopoe eggs 

 and the cuckoo egg hatched on September 17; two more of the host 

 eggs hatched the next day and the last one on the following day. 

 The young hoopoes remained in the nest for 3 days, when they were 

 found dead and partly devoured by ants nearby. Their actual removal 

 from the nest was not observed, so it is not possible to state whether 

 they were evicted by the young parasite or had died and were re- 

 moved by their parents. The cuckoo chick remained in the nest for 

 4 weeks, and the foster-parents were seen feeding it after it fledged, 

 until it flew strongly. 



A few years later, near Tregarthens Folly, Cape Province, Miss 

 Courtenay-Latimer saw a hoopoe feeding a fledgling great-spotted 

 cuckoo on November 7, 12, 15, and 20, 1934. The fact that this 

 parent-young relationship was observed on numerous days shows it 

 was not a casual, temporary interest of a food-laden adult in a 

 clamorous fledgling from another bird's nest, and also indicates a 

 duration of postfledging feeding of at least 2 weeks. The first record, 

 entailing an egg of the parasite on September 9, must be one of the 

 earliest egg dates for this cuckoo in South Africa. 



The hoopoe has never been found to be parasitized in Europe, but 

 Meinertzhagen (1948, p. 563) noted a single cuckoo apparently 

 closely associated with a hoopoe in Ushant, Brittany, on April 16, 

 1947. Meinertzhagen did not imply parasitism or any other reason 

 for the observed association and did not even state if the cuckoo was 

 a young bird. If not for Miss Courtenay-Latimer's observation on 

 the South African race of the hoopoe, no one would have suspected 

 any host-parasite situation in Meinertzhagen's terse report. Indeed, as 

 written, it affords no basis for any such interpretation, but the ques- 

 tion does arise. 



Geocolaptes olivaceus (Gmelin) Ground Woodpecker 



At Waverly Haasfontein, eastern Cape Province, on October 5, 

 1952, Miss M. Courtenay-Latimer (in litt.) observed a ground wood- 



