NO. 4 AVIAN GENUS CLAMATOR — FRIEDMANN 99 



account. I have data on 18 such cases, from South Africa, Southern 

 Rhodesia, Nyasaland, Tanganyika, and Nigeria. The number of 

 cuckoo eggs per nest varied from 1 to 13, the majority of nests 

 having from 1 to 5 of the parasitic eggs. 



Corvus capensis Lichtenstein Cape Rook 



This rook, unique among crows in that it lays pinkish, and not 

 greenish, eggs, with which the eggs of the cuckoo contrast markedly 

 in coloration, is known to be imposed upon in South Africa and 

 Southern Rhodesia (nominate race) and in former British Somahland 

 (race kordof aniens) . Of the southern race, there are 13 records in my 

 files; of kordof aniens, 2 records (both ex Archer and Godnian, 1961, 

 vol. 3, p. 657). Five of the southern records are given in my earlier 

 reports (1949a, p. 12; 1949b, p. 514). The additional eight are as 

 follows: five are from Southern Rhodesia (Beatrice, Banket, Salis- 

 bury, and Selukwe) and three from eastern Cape Province, South 

 Africa. The number of cuckoo eggs in these sets varies from one to 

 four; in six instances there was a single egg of the parasite with 

 from one to four eggs of the host ; in seven nests each had two eggs 

 of the cuckoo with from one to three of the host ; one nest had three 

 cuckoo and five rook eggs, and one nest contained four eggs of the 

 parasite and five of the host. 



Since the above was written, Pitman (1962, p. 23) has recorded 

 that as many as nine eggs of the cuckoo have been found in a single 

 nest of a Cape rook in South Africa. The exact data on this nest 

 were not presented. 



Corvus rhipidurus Hartert Fan-tailed Raven 



As I mentioned in my first account (1949a, pp. 12-13), Lort Phillips 

 and his party found in 1885 that in northern former Italian Somaliland 

 (now a part of the Somali Republic) nearly all of the examined nests 

 of this bird contained eggs of the great-spotted cuckoo, and that in 

 one nest there were no fewer than eight eggs of the parasite with four 

 of the raven. Archer {in Archer and Godman, 1961, p. 657) recorded 

 two parasitized nests found in former British Somaliland (now a part 

 of the Somali Republic), one at Sheikh and one at Ariarleh, the 

 former with three eggs of the raven and two of the cuckoo, the 

 latter with one of the host and four of the parasite. 



Archer found the brown-necked raven, Corvus rufieollis edithae, 

 to be the most frequently used host in the Somali Republic, and in his 

 discussion he appears to include Lort Phillips's data as pertaining to 



