Bulletin - United States National Museum

This series publishes original articles and monographs focusing on the Museum's collections and work, presenting newly acquired facts in anthropology, biology, geology, history and technology. The current study is the second in a series that, when completed, can hopefully provide the background for a better understanding of the phenomenon of parasitic reproduction in the Cuculidae. The genus covered in this article contains three times as many species as Clamator and covers

Previously, the African species have been treated by specialists in African birds, the Australian and Malayan separately by other regional students, and the Asian by still other authors. As in the previous study of Clamator, the attempt to assess the phylogenetic relationships between the 12 species of Chrysococcyx. By correspondence with the unfailingly cooperative curators of their respective collections and, in a few cases, by the loan of selected critical specimens, I have been able to make use of data on relevant material in the museums of Bulawayo, Durban, Nairobi and.

My personal field experience with Chrysococcyx, although limited to three of the four species found in Africa, formed my original basic interest in this group and played a contributing role in the present study. Chrysococcyx agrees more closely (but not rigidly) with Cuculus than with Clamator in intensity of parasitism in.

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AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 3

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AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX H

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AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 19 the klaas is the closest living relative oijladgulans, and it is reassuring

AVIAN GENTJS CHRYSOCOCCYX 21

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AVIAN GENUS CPIRYSOCOCCYX 29 a race of the same species. Deigrian has suggested that it might be

AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 31 Guinea and the islands to the west of it. Because it does not cross

AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 33 summarized the data by calling the species "largely resident, but

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AVIAN GENUS CHRTSOCOCCYX 35 from his bill to hers. She accepted and swallowed this gift, the cock

AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 39

In the case of three of these, only the Gerygone herons have so far been reported, and it is likely that these birds are the most commonly used hosts. However, more complete knowledge may reveal a less rigid obligate dependence on Gerygone than is suggested by the current record (e.g., in the Northern Australian and New Guinea races of the cuckoo, russatus and minutillus, fantails are known to and honeyeaters also serve as hosts). The first of these two species is also known as the main host of minutillus cuckoos.

AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 41

The South Australian and Tasmanian race of glossj^cuckoos has such a long list of recorded hosts, in contrast to the much shorter list for the New Zealand race and the absence of such lists for some of the other subspecies of C. Thanks to the kind help of many Australian observers I have been able to add to the published records many additional cases of parasitism of this cuckoo and now have a corpus of about 167 records comprising 75 species. ^ No. Of the 75 species included in the list, 51 are known to be guardians of this cuckoo based on single onl}^ records; A further 12 were reported twice as victims of the glossy cuckoo, 5 were recorded three times, 2 four times and only 5 were recorded as caretakers five or more times.

In descending order of frequency, the most important hosts are the following: yellow-tailed thornbird, Acanthiza chrysorrhoa, 40 times; brown thorn bird, Acanthiza pusilla, 13 times;. Thornbirds, with 8 species and 71 records of parasitism, account for a little more than 10 percent of all hosts and more than 30 percent of all cases of parasitism. AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 43doubt lower than it should be since the regular hosts are less in-.

AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 43 doubtedly lower than it should be as the regular hosts are less in-

44 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 2 65 Acanthiza chrysorrlioa

48 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 2 65 Dicacum hirundinaceum

AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCX)CCYX 51 Dicaeum agile Thick-billed flower-pecker

AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 53

NATIONAL ATUSEUM BULLETIN 265Chalcomitra veroxii Mouse sunbeam Chalcomitra veroxii Mouse sunbeam Anthreptescollaris Collared passer domesticus House sparrow. Of the 59 hosts listed above, 30 are listed based on individual records; 11 others are birds of which I have learned two specimens of each; two have been registered three times as Klaas's cuckoo fosters, and the other two four times. The African Emerald Cuckoo has been found to parasitize a large number and many species of small stinging birds. Data are available on 60 cases of its parasitism involving 34 host species (42 species and subspecies).®.

Haas, which affects blackbirds and warblers more than any other bird, the present species cannot be said to favor a particular family of hosts. The most frequently reported caregiver is a bulbid, Pycnonotus barbatus, for which there are nine records; then there are, with four records, the piece weaver, Ploceuscucullatus, a blackbird, Necfariniaerythroceria, and a flycatcher, Terpsiphone viridis; following these, with three records each, are a ton, Dryoscopus cubla, two blackbirds, 'For relevant references to published records see: Bannerman 1933, p.

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BULLETIN OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM 265Nectariniaerythroceria Red-breasted Sunbird Nectariniaerythroceria Red-breasted Sunbird Nectariniakilimensis Bronze-breasted Sunbird Cinnyris chloropygius Olive-bellied Sunbird Cinnyris reichenovn Reichenow's Sunbird Chalcomitraolivacea Olive sunbii-d. Ploceus xanthops Jameson's golden weaver Ploceus reichenoioi Reichenow's weaver Ploceuscucullatus V-marked weaver Ploceus ocularis Spectacled weaver. In a few years I managed to collect about 426 records of its parasitism on a total of 67 species (84 species and subspecies) of hosts.1°.

AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 57 The didric is generally absent from treeless grasslands, and it is

AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 59 Passer griseus

Parasites of avian brood fall into three categories with respect to host specificity: those that show no such host specificity, those that are specific in their parasitism only as individuals, and those in which the entire species is species specific host or a small group. of connected hosts. Members of the first category deposit their eggs in any available and generally suitable nest, regardless of the particular species of victim involved; This is true not only of the breast parasite as a species, but also of each of the individuals involved. Parasites whose individual members tend to lay all their eggs in the nests of a single host species, although the hosts may vary.

In some such cases, there may be adaptive evolution of egg morphs with similarity to eggs from frequent foster families. Southern (1954, p. 220) believed that about half of the species of parasitic cuckoos adequately studied have been found to have or are suspected of having such subdivisions. This conclusion seems to be an exaggeration and may have been derived by counting some of the Asiatic races of Cuculus canorus, such as telenus and bakeri, as species and setting them.

The condition in Chrysococcyx, described below and in our discussion of egg morphism, helps to put. The third group, characterized by specific host specificity, includes species in which individual host preferences of all involved.

AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 61 some of the cuckoos' specific-host specificity is an evolutionary out-

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AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 63 much of Australia (C. I. plagosus), for which no fewer than 75 species much of Australia (C. I. plagosus), for which no less than 75 species of local hosts are now recorded. It makes one wonder if there are no suitable breeders besides Gerygone on Bellona, Rennell, Loyalty and other islands, and it also makes one wonder why there are no breeding popids of either lucidus or malayanus in the Solomon Islands or in the Bismarks, where the elsewhere favorite hosts are to be found. Another observation indicating individual host specificity in this cuckoo was reported by Cohn (1924, p. 76), who found six nests of the red-headed robin, Petroica goodenovii, each containing an egg of C .

I only saw one cuckoo near these nests, if I am reasonably sure that the same cuckoo eats all the eggs.

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AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 65 Ottow and Duve (1965) presented a summary and interpretation

AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 67 The characteristics of the egg shells, coloration, size, gloss, and

AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 69 dark olive-brown, slightly freckled with dark bro\Mi; in some the

AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 71 taken from nests of Arachnothera longirostris show a \\Teath of small

AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 73 by those of others dealing with still different hosts. Thus, a record by

AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 77 There is a close agreement in size between didric eggs (average 21.7

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That there may be some local or individual variation in the matter of laying thousands of eggs is suggested by the fact that of twelve nests containing two didric eggs each, four were found in central Natal (but over a period of seven years) – all nest indoors. In the two Malaysian species maculatus and xanthorhynchus, Baker's data include only a few eggs per nest, 11 in the case of rnaculatus and 9 for xanthorhynchus. In the case White described where three basalis eggs were at the same height, they were actually buried at different levels in the nest lining, so that this case was actually more comparable to three separate nests than to one with multiple parasitism.

Another example of three basaliseggsin anestes of Malurus cyaneus, Parsons (1918, p. 145) reported, also involved eggs buried under the later nest lining, but.

AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 87 Number of eggs

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AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 89 the time between the two acts would make it uncertain that there

AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 91 Host -parasite nestling relations

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NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 265 Expulsion of nest mates by nesting cuckoo Expulsion of nest mates by nesting cuckoos. Like the related genera Cuculus and Cacomantis, CJirysococcyx also evidences the behavioral pattern of nest-mate expulsion by newborn young. As in the other two sexes, this habit disappears only in the first days of its life, and disappears by the time the eyes of the young cuckoo begin to open.

In all probability the habit also occurs in other glossy cuckoos, but no records are available for them.^'. Both Pitman and Chapin (in Friedmann 1949a, pp. 180-181) have sent menotesonnes containing young of the host and cuckoos (caprius), but we do not know whether these were cases where the young parasite did not attempt to expelled his friends or if he tried to. In an earlier discussion (1956, pp. 404-405) I pointed out that no one had yet made a direct observation of the act of expulsion by a young capricious, a statement that still holds true a decade later.

In the nest of Ploceus capensis, the young didrica evicted the egg and the newly hatched young of the foster parent on the second day.

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AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 105 More of a sequential, phylogenetic display of change can be found

AVIAN GENTJS CHRYSOCOCCYX 107 Egg coloration shows agreement between some closely related

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AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 115 Bannerman, David A

Nests and eggs of Australian birds, including the geographical distribution of the species and popular observations thereon.

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Further notes on the nesting of Paradise Flycatchers and on the parasitism of Klaas's Cuckoo.

AVIAN GENUS CHRYSOCOCCYX 123 MOLTONI, EdGARDO, AND RUSCONE, GlUSEPPE GnECCHI

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