Chapter C: J. Maynard (1896) says (4)

By the time that the young bird leaves the nest, at the ago of 8 or 9 days, it is in nearly full juvenal plumage; the wings are fairly well grown, but the tail is still very short. In this plumage the soft plumage above is “buffy brown,” each feather tipped with white; the under parts are silvery white, tinged with pale gray on the belly and with pale buff on the breast and throat. During late summer and early fall, most, if not all, of this juvenal contour plumage is molted and replaced by the first winter plumage, but the flight feathers of the wings and tail are retained until spring. This first winter plumage is much like that of the adult, but it is more brownish on the head and back and more greenish olive on the scapulars than in adults; the throat is more buffy and the upper breast more grayish buff than in the adult; the young bird’s tail is quite different, the grayish white tips are smaller and are not bordered inwardly with the dusky space, which is clearly visible in the adult tail. The molts are apparently the same as in the yellow-billed cuckoo; the adult plumage seems to be acquired before the young birds return from their first winter in the south, but we have no specimens showing a spring molt.

_Food._--The black-billed cuckoo is just as good a caterpillar destroyer as the yellow-billed; in fact the food habits of the two species are almost identical in all respects. An abundance of caterpillars in a locality is very likely to bring with it an invasion of cuckoos. Frank L. Farley writes to me: “As far as I am aware, the black-billed cuckoo was unknown in central Alberta until the summer of 1923. That year the central portion of the Province was infested with tent caterpillars, which, in 1924–25, assumed plague proportions. Entire bluffs of poplar trees, several acres in extent, were entirely denuded of their leaves, while houses and other buildings were overrun with the pests.” In June 1924 the cuckoos began to appear for the first time, birds entirely unknown to the residents. “Although caterpillars gradually disappeared after 1925, cuckoos were reported from widely separated parts of central Alberta, the most northerly one being about 150 miles north of Camrose, which is in latitude 53° N. The presence of cuckoos and caterpillars in the same territory during these years would tend to bear out the claims of other observers, that the insects are particularly relished by these birds, which, in some uncanny manner, are able to locate infested territory far removed from their usual place of residence.”

Forbush (1927) says:

In seasons when caterpillars of any species are abundant,
cuckoos usually become common in the infested localities.
They follow the caterpillars, and where such food is
plentiful, the size of their broods seems to increase.
During an invasion of forest tent caterpillars in Stoneham,
Massachusetts, in May, 1898, Mr. Frank H. Mosher watched
one of these birds that caught and ate 36 of these insects
inside of five minutes. He saw another in Malden eat 29,
rest a few minutes and then eat 14 more. In July, 1899, he
reported a family of these birds in a locality infested
with the gipsy moth, and said that they were eating large
quantities of gipsy caterpillars. In June, 1895, Mr.
Henry Shaw reported great numbers of these cuckoos in
Dorchester feeding on the same pests. The late Professor
Walter B. Barrows, of Michigan, an extremely conservative
ornithologist, is responsible for the statement that in
several instances remains of over 100 tent caterpillars
have been taken from a single cuckoo’s stomach. The
Black-billed Cuckoo, because more common than the
Yellow-billed, is the species that most commonly attacks
this insect in New England orchards. During an invasion of
army worms, Professor S. A. Forbes found that 95 per cent
of the food of this species consisted of that caterpillar.

F. H. King (1883), writing of the food of the black-billed cuckoo in Wisconsin, says: “Of thirteen specimens examined, nine had eaten caterpillars--among them were eight of the fall web-worms (_Hyphantria textor_), thirty-three of the oak caterpillars (_Dryocampa senatoria_), one of the Io caterpillars (_Saturnia io_), six of the antiopa caterpillars (_Vanessa antiopa_), and one of the caterpillars of the archippus butterfly (_Danais archippus_). One contained five larvae of the large saw-fly (_Cymbex americana_); six, twenty-five grasshoppers; one, a cricket; two, ten beetles; and two, two harvest-men.”

Other authors have charged this cuckoo with eating minute mollusks and other small animals, fishes and aquatic larvae, fruits and berries, and even the eggs and young of small birds. On the latter point, Henry D. Minot (1877) says that “they do great mischief in destroying the eggs of other useful birds. Like arrant cowards, as they are, they take opportunities to approach stealthily the nests of many birds, whom they would be afraid to encounter, and then feast on the eggs of the absent parents, after which they hurry away. They are scarcely less destructive in this way than the black snakes, though I have never known them to kill young birds.”

_Behavior._--The two cuckoos are so much alike in haunts, habits, and behavior that most of what I have said about the yellow-billed would apply equally well to this species. The black-billed is rather more swift on the wing than the other, but it flies in the same graceful manner. It is the same shy recluse of the shady retreats, among the dense foliage of the woods and shade trees, unafraid to frequent the orchards and gardens in search for its food, but shunning any intimacy with human beings; we hear its wandering voice but seldom see more than a fleeting glimpse of its graceful form as it fades away into the shadows.

In defense of its eggs or young the black-billed cuckoo is often quite courageous. Olive Thorne Miller (1892) writes charmingly of her experiences with an incubating pair of these cuckoos; she watched them change places on the nest, and found the female quite confiding, but the male never became reconciled to her presence:

It happened that I arrived when the mother was away, and
the head of the household in charge. No sooner did I appear
on the path than he flew off the nest with great bustle,
thus betraying himself at once; but he did not desert his
post of protector. He perched on a branch somewhat higher
than my head, and five or six feet away, and began calling,
a low “coo-oo.” With every cry he opened his mouth very
wide, as though to shriek at the top of his voice, and the
low cry that came out was so ludicrously inadequate to his
apparent effort that it was very droll. In this performance
he made fine display of the inside of his mouth and throat,
which looked, from where I stood, like black satin. * * *

Finding that his voice did not drive me away, the bird
resorted to another method; he tried intimidation. First
he threw himself into a most curious attitude, humping his
shoulders and opening his tail like a fan, then spreading
his wings and resting the upper end of them on his tail,
which made at the back a sort of scoop effect. Every time
he uttered the cry he lifted wings and tail together, and
let them fall slowly back to their natural position. It was
the queerest bird performance I ever saw.

On another day, she says: “We had not waited long when the head of the cuckoo family appeared. He saw us instantly, and, I regret to say, was no more reconciled to our presence than he had been on the previous occasion; but he showed his displeasure in a different way. He rushed about in the trees, crying, ‘cuck-a-ruck, cuck-a-ruck,’ running out even to the tip of slender branches that seemed too slight to bear his weight. When his feelings entirely overcame him he flew away, and though we remained fifteen minutes, no one came to the nest.”

E. A. Samuels (1883) writes:

Like the other, the Black-billed Cuckoo is very cowardly,
and is quickly driven from the neighborhood of the nest of
almost any of the other birds. If a robin, or other bird of
equal size, discover one of these, to him pirates, in the
vicinity of his nest, he immediately assaults the intruder,
with loud outcries, pouncing upon him, and pecking with
great ferocity. Others of his neighbors, who are near,
join in the attack; the Cuckoo, in retreating, dives into
the recesses of a stone wall, or the first secure retreat
available; very seldom taking to his wings, as another bird
would do, I have known of a cuckoo being driven into a barn
by a Blue-bird (_S. sialis_), who sat perching on a fence
outside for several minutes, keeping his enemy prisoner;
and the latter, when pursued and captured by myself,
preferred being my prisoner to facing his enemy outside.

_Voice._--One cannot always distinguish with certainty _all_ the notes of the black-billed cuckoo from _all_ those of the yellow-billed. Many of the notes are much alike in both species. The notes of the black-billed are, as a rule, softer and more liquid than those of the yellow-billed and not so deep-toned.

The ordinary “song” of the black-billed is preceded by a gurgling note, and the rest of the long song is uttered in regularly measured time, not retarded at the end, as is that of the yellow-billed, and the notes are given in couplets or triplets, one syllable in each set being accented. Dr. Charles W. Townsend (1920a) describes it very well as follows: “The full song may be described as a preliminary harsh clearing of the throat followed by from six to twelve short coughs which in turn are succeeded by the more pleasing doublets and triplets of _cows_. The Yellow-billed Cuckoo repeats his _cows_ or _cowks_ in regular order without dividing them into sets and they sound as woodeny as if he were striking a plank with a mallet.”

Aretas A. Saunders (1929) says: “The bird has a variety of calls. One consists of a gurgling note followed by single notes in even time, ‘krak-ika kuh kuh kuh kuh kuh kuh kuh kuh’. Another is a series of groups consisting of two to six notes repeated many times, with one of the notes strongly accented, such as ‘_kuka kuka kuka_,’ or ‘ka_kuk_aka ka_kuk_aka ka_kuk_aka.’ I have known a bird to repeat such phrases over a hundred times without stopping.”

The notes of the black-billed cuckoo are often given on the nest or while the bird is in flight, and they may be heard at all hours of the day or night. Both cuckoos are said to be more noisy just before a rain, hence the name “rain crow.”

Mr. Brewster (1937a) says that “both species coo in the same subdued, mournful, dovelike tones, but when so engaged, the Yellow-bill always utters only a single note at a time, and then waits at least a second or two before following it with another precisely similar; whereas the cooing notes of the Black-bill are invariably doubled or trebled or quadrupled, or perhaps even quintupled, yet separated from one another within such grouping by scarcely appreciable pauses.”

Gerald H. Thayer (1903) has given an interesting account of what he calls “the mid-summer, mid-night, mid-sky gyrations of the Black-billed Cuckoo, as noted by my father and me for three consecutive seasons in the southwestern corner of New Hampshire”:

Several years before we discovered the nocturnal-flight
phenomenon, we began to be puzzled by the extreme frequency
of Cuckoo calls on summer nights. * * * They uttered both
the _cow-cow_ notes and the rolling guttural call; but the
guttural was much the commoner of the two, except on dark,
foggy nights, when the case was usually reversed. * * * The
birds were often so far up as to be only faintly audible
when directly overhead, with no obstructions interposed;
and this on a still night would seem to mean an elevation
of at least a hundred and fifty yards. They sometimes flew
lower, however, and on cloudy nights often moved about
barely above the tree-tops.

* * * On the evening of July 11--a pitch-dark evening with
a thunder-shower lowering,--they were remarkably noisy,
both sitting in trees and flying high in air. The seated
ones, of which I heard only two, made the _cow-cow_ notes,
while all the flying ones made the liquid gurgle. I heard
this note overhead between thirty and forty times in the
course of about three hours, during half of which time I
was afoot on the road.

_Field marks._--This bird may be recognized as a cuckoo by its size, shape, and general coloration. It can be distinguished from the yellow-billed cuckoo by the absence of the distinguishing marks of the latter, the cinnamon-rufous in the wings, and the conspicuously black-and-white lateral tail feathers.

The wings of the black-billed cuckoo are practically uniform in color with its back; and the lateral tail feathers are dark gray, with inconspicuous, grayish-white, smaller tips, bordered inwardly with a dusky spot. The wholly black bill and the red eyelids can be seen only at short range.

DISTRIBUTION

_Range._--Southern Canada and the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, south in winter to northwestern South America. Accidental in Italy, the Azores, and Ireland.

_Breeding range._--The breeding range of the black-billed cuckoo extends =north= to southern Saskatchewan (Johnstone Lake, Muscow, and Indian Head); southern Manitoba (Carberry, Portage la Prairie, and Shoal Lake); northern Minnesota (Crooked Lake); southern Ontario (probably Goulais Bay, Toronto, and Stirling); Quebec (Hull, Montreal, probably Quebec, and probably Kamouraska); New Brunswick (Scotch Lake); probably Prince Edward Island (North River); and Nova Scotia (Wolfville and Pictou). From this point the range extends =south= along the seaboard to North Carolina (Raleigh and Winston-Salem); Tennessee (Beersheba Springs and Nashville); northwestern Arkansas (Rogers); eastern Kansas (Lawrence and Clearwater); Nebraska (Red Cloud, Kearney, and Antioch); and southeastern Wyoming (Wheatland). =West= to eastern Wyoming (Wheatland and Dayton); eastern Montana (Terry); and Saskatchewan (Johnstone Lake).

The species has been detected in summer on several occasions west of its breeding range. Among these are: Colorado (Fort Morgan, Clear Creek, Fort Collins, and Wray); Wyoming (Laramie); Montana (Fort Keogh, Knowlton, and Billings); and western Saskatchewan (Eastend, Skull Creek, Medicine Hat, and Big Stick Lake). On June 23, 1924, a partially completed nest was found near Camrose, Alberta, a range extension that for the time being must be considered unusual (see remarks under “Food”). The species also was recorded at Godbout, Quebec, on August 11, 1885.

_Winter range._--Available information indicates that in winter this species is concentrated in northwestern South America: Colombia (Antroquia, Medellin, and Bogota); Ecuador (Guapulo, La Carolina, Daule, Puna Lake, and Lechugal); and northern Peru (Huamachuco).

_Spring migration._--Early dates of spring arrival are: Florida-- Hastings, April 13; Eau Gallie, April 27; Pensacola, May 2. Alabama--Scottsboro, April 18; Barachias, April 22. Georgia--Atlanta, April 24; Athens, April 27. South Carolina--Frogmore, April 24; Spartanburg, April 29. North Carolina--Raleigh, April 15; Piney Creek, May 4. Virginia--Blacksburg, April 26; Lynchburg, May 8. District of Columbia--Washington, April 30. Maryland--Baltimore, April 20. Pennsylvania--Jeffersonville, April 30; Ridgway, May 6; Doylestown, May 9. New Jersey--Milltown, May 2; Passaic, May 7. New York--Medina, May 3; New York City, May 9; Rochester, May 15. Connecticut--Fairfield, May 1; Hadlyme, May 4; New Haven, May 7. Rhode Island--Block Island, May 6. Massachusetts--Belmont, May 4; Marlboro, May 6; North Amherst, May 12; Danvers, May 12. Vermont--Clarendon, May 12; St. Johnsbury, May 13; Wells River, May 18. New Hampshire--East Westmoreland, May 16; South Hooksett, May 16; Concord, May 21. Maine--South Portland, May 11; Winthrop, May 15; Waterville, May 20. Quebec--Montreal, May 10; Hatley, May 28. New Brunswick--Scotch Lake, May 27. Nova Scotia--Halifax, May 12; Wolfville, May 18. Louisiana--Avery Island, April 12. Mississippi--Bay St. Louis, April 14. Arkansas--Fayetteville, April 30; Broma Towns, May 2. Tennessee--Knoxville, April 12; Tate, April 26. Kentucky--Lexington, May 1; Bowling Green, May 6. Missouri--Jonesburg, May 3; Montgomery City, May 4; Columbia, May 7. Illinois--Rantoul, April 17; Elgin, May 5; Glen Ellyn, May 7. Indiana--Bloomington, April 26; Richmond, April 27; Vincennes, May 7. Ohio--Oberlin, May 1; Columbia, May 2; Upper Sandusky, May 3. Michigan--Detroit, May 1; Brant, May 3; Sault Ste. Marie, May 11. Ontario--Guelph, April 19; Ottawa, May 7; London, May 9. Iowa--McGregor, April 24; Mason City, April 30; Wall Lake, May 3. Wisconsin--Racine, May 8; Beloit, May 10; Whitewater, May 11. Minnesota--Montevideo, April 13; Anoka County, May 5; Excelsior, May 13. Oklahoma--Tulsa, May 3; Norman, May 5. Kansas--Fort Leavenworth, May 6; Bendena, May 8; Clearwater, May 9. Nebraska--Valentine, May 1; Red Cloud, May 11; Omaha, May 13. South Dakota--Yankton, May 1; Huron, May 13; Forestburg, May 15. North Dakota--Grafton, April 25; Antler, May 3; Jamestown, May 23. Manitoba--Aweme, May 20; Pilot Mound, May 24; Reaburn, May 26. Saskatchewan--Muscow, May 12; Indian Head, May 20.

_Fall migration._--Late dates of fall departure are: Manitoba-- Margaret, September 3; Aweme, September 14. North Dakota--Fargo, September 13; Cando, September 18; Argusville, September 22. South Dakota--Forestburg, September 6; Sioux Falls, September 22; Lennox, October 14. Kansas--Cimarron, September 2; Osawatomie, September 22. Minnesota--Elk River, September 27; Red Wing, October 2. Wisconsin--New London, September 24; Racine, September 24; Madison, September 26. Iowa--Wall Lake, September 28; Osage, October 10; McGregor, October 20. Ontario--Ottawa, September 16; Point Pelee, October 18. Michigan--Charity Island, September 20; Grand Rapids, September 26, Detroit, October 9. Ohio--Saybrook, October 1; Berlin Center, October 12; Columbus, October 15. Indiana--Indianapolis, October 2; Fort Wayne, October 12; Bicknell, October 18. Illinois--Rantoul, October 4; La Grange, October 7; Glen Ellyn, October 21. Missouri--Columbia, October 4; St. Louis, October 16. Kentucky--Danville, October 5; Bowling Green, October 18. Mississippi--Bay St. Louis, October 11. Nova Scotia--Sable Island, September 25. Quebec--Montreal, September 5. Maine--Orono, September 21; Winthrop, October 20. New Hampshire--Jefferson, October 3; Durham, October 5. Vermont--Wells River, September 14; Woodstock, September 18. Massachusetts--West Groton, September 30; North Truro, October 13; Harvard, October 16. Rhode Island--Providence, October 23. Connecticut--New Haven, September 28; East Portland, October 3; Meriden, October 8. New York--Hyde Park, October 6; New York City, October 10. New Jersey--Elizabeth, October 3; Sandy Hook, October 5; Milltown, October 24. Pennsylvania--McKeesport, October 11; Jeffersonville, October 13; Pittsburgh, October 16. District of Columbia--Washington, October 28. Virginia--Naruna, October 18. North Carolina--Chapel Hill, October 3; Raleigh, October 10; Hendersonville, October 12. Georgia--Atlanta, October 14; Thomasville, October 21. Alabama--Autauga County, October 16. Florida--College Point, September 28; Pensacola, October 23.

_Casual records._--While the black-billed cuckoo does not migrate regularly through the Caribbean region it has been recorded on Dominica (September 30, 1904), Tobago, and Trinidad. Gundlach is alleged to have taken a specimen in May (year?) near Cardenas, Cuba, and there is a somewhat doubtful record from the Isle of Pines on May 11, 1909. Specimens were taken in Bermuda in October 1874 and also in April and May 1875. The Ponta Delgada Museum has an undated specimen taken at San Miguel, Ponta Delgada, Azores; a specimen taken in 1858 near Lucca, Italy, is preserved in the Museum of the University of Pisa; and one was taken on September 25, 1871, at Killead, County Antrim, Ireland.

_Egg dates._--Illinois: 13 records, May 7 to July 20; 7 records, June 1 to 26, indicating the height of the season.

Massachusetts: 20 records, May 19 to June 20; 10 records, May 30 to June 10.

Michigan: 14 records, May 25 to September 14; 7 records, June 21 to July 20.

New York: 23 records, May 11 to July 18; 12 records, May 29 to June 9.

CUCULUS OPTATUS OPTATUS Gould

HIMALAYAN CUCKOO

CONTRIBUTED BY EDWARD CHARLES STUART BAKER

HABITS

The Himalayan cuckoo very closely resembles the various races of the common cuckoo (_Cuculus canorus_) in its general habits, but it is, I think, a more secretive bird, keeping closely to tall trees with dense foliage, so that although one may hear its very distinctive call on many occasions quite close by it is often very difficult to see until it takes to wing. In Kashmir and the northwest Himalayas it is found in summer at all elevations between 5,000 and 10,000 feet and occasionally to some 2,000 feet higher but, never, I believe, above the forest line. In Sikkim it is common in well-forested land between 4,000 and 9,000 feet, while Stevens (1925) records having heard it calling at an elevation of 3,500 feet on May 25, so that it may breed as low down as this in that part of the Himalayas. In Assam it is very common between the same elevations as in Sikkim, there also keeping closely to forest, either deciduous, pine, or evergreen with dense undergrowth. All ornithologists seem to agree as to the nature of the country frequented by this cuckoo. In letters to me A. E. Jones mentions “dense forest,” “dense deodar forest” as the breeding haunts of birds whose eggs he has found; B. B. Osmaston (MS.) found it in “open, well-wooded forest.” Mackenzie and Hopwood (MS.) took eggs in the nests of _Acanthopneuste davisoni_ in the Chin Hills, in “heavy evergreen forest.” The only exception to this of which I am aware is an egg taken by T. R. Livesey (MS.) found in Kashmir in a nest of _Emberiza cia stracheyi_ in a “well-wooded glade in forest.”

At all seasons of the year it keeps almost entirely to branches of high trees, some 40 or 50 feet or more from the ground, descending to the undergrowth only when hunting for nests in which to deposit its eggs or for the actual deposition of the egg. When so employed it is, I believe, always silent and, even in its movements, very quiet and secretive unless it is being harassed by small birds who hunt it just as they do the common cuckoo. I have not seen this bird feeding in bushes or on the ground even when there are numerous caterpillars or a flight of termites to tempt it.

When on migration also this cuckoo seems to keep to forest or to exceptionally well-wooded country, and I have no record of its having been found in the open in India, though obviously it must sometimes pass over such country in its movements from one district to another, more especially in the northwest.

_Spring._--In Kashmir and the northwest Himalayas the birds arrive from the lower hills and the plains adjoining them in April, a few apparently in the first fortnight, but the majority not until the last week or so. In Sikkim they arrive a good deal earlier, and Stevens (1925) records them as _seen_ at Gopaldhara in the Rambong Valley about the middle of March “when it ascends to an elevation of 7,000 feet,” while he _heard_ them calling at the same place as early as March 12. Farther east in Assam it does not arrive at its breeding quarters in the higher hills until about the first week in April and then only in small numbers. In Burma at elevations of about 4,000 feet and over it breeds about a fortnight earlier and is in full call by the last week in March.

This cuckoo is possibly only a partial migrant in India, leaving the higher hills for the broken foothills, where it may be found more or less throughout the winter, as well as in the plains immediately adjoining them. To the east, however, as I show under the fall migration notes, it is a true migrant. According to La Touche (1931–1936), during the spring migration north the Himalayan cuckoo “appears in China from about the 10th April to the end of May,” and he records three cuckoos taken at Shaweishan on May 1, 16, and 17. These birds were presumably on their way north to eastern Siberia or Manchuria.

La Touche does not think that this bird breeds anywhere in the Chinese Hills, its place being taken by the local breeding race _kelungensis_.

The 38 eggs in my collection were taken as follows: Three in April, 14 in May, 20 in June, none in July, and 1 in August. The earliest date was April 25, 1915, and the latest August 20, 1914. At the same time an egg taken in the Chin Hills on April 30 was on the point of hatching, so, in the Burmese Hills, some eggs must be laid in the middle of that month, birds arriving in their breeding haunts at least a fortnight earlier. Other eggs that have passed through my hands were all taken within these dates so far as I have recorded them, so they may be accepted as confirming my dates for migration.

_Courtship._--There is nothing recorded upon this subject but, so far as I know, it differs in no way from that of the Khasia Hills cuckoo, and both sexes seem to be equally promiscuous in their sexual relations.

_Nesting._--This cuckoo is parasitic principally on the small warblers of the _Phylloscopus_ and _Acanthopneuste_ group, which lay white eggs, either immaculate or speckled slightly with various tints of reddish brown or red, or the _Seicercus_ group, which lay glossy pure white eggs.

In my own collection I have eggs taken from the nests of 16 species and subspecies of fosterers (see the following list); of these the first 10 may be considered to be normal fosterers and the latter abnormal.

The Himalayan cuckoo does adopt a certain territory but hardly in the restricted sense that _Cuculus canorus_ and its various races do. The principal reason for this is the comparative rarity of the birds that she selects as foster parents to her eggs. For instance, although the little _Acanthopneuste_ breeding in the Khasia Hills is a common bird, it nowhere breeds in the numbers in which birds of the _Suya_ and _Cisticola_ genera are found. Perhaps half a dozen pairs may be found in one big forest of many square miles, and to find even these six is very hard work. In the same forest another half dozen birds of the genus _Seicercus_ of various species may be found. These little warblers of the two genera _Acanthopneuste_ and _Seicercus_ make very similar nests, balls of moss, quite green and fresh, which are placed in hollows in banks and generally among the same kind of moss as that of which the nests are built. They are exceedingly hard to find by human beings and, unless the birds are watched on to the nest, are generally located only when the female is disturbed from it by accident and doubtless the cuckoo also finds they are difficult to mark down.

LIST OF FOSTER PARENTS
eggs
_Phylloscopus inornatus humei_ 2
_Phylloscopus proregulus simlaae_ 1
_Acanthopneuste reguloides harterti_ 13
_Acanthopneuste reguloides davisoni_ 3
_Acanthopneuste reguloides reguloides_ 1
_Acanthopneuste occipitatis occipitatis_ 4
_Seicercus cantator_ 3
_Seicercus burkii_ 2
_Seicercus xanthoschista xanthoschista_ 1
_Seicercus castaneiceps castaneiceps_ 2
_Ianthia rufilata_ 1
_Niltava sundara sundara_ 1
_Suya crinigera assamica_ 1
_Orthotomus atrogularis nitidus_ 1
_Napothera brevicaudata striata_ 1
_Emberiza cia stracheyi_ 1

I have only two small series of three eggs, each of which I believe to have been laid by one cuckoo, one of these being taken in 1909 by myself. Of this latter the first two eggs were found on June 16 and 18 in a patch of forest in which we marked down three nests of the Khasia crowned willow warbler, one of which contained no cuckoo’s egg. On June 13 we found that the pair of warblers first seen on May 16 had again built close by their original nest and the new one contained a third egg, apparently of the same cuckoo, and three of their own. The nests found on May 16 and 18 were between a quarter and a half of a mile apart.

On another occasion, June 27, 1935, three eggs were taken, one in the nest of the willow warbler and two others in nests of _Seicercus_. These were all in the same forest, but only two close together and the third nearly half a mile away. The eggs, however, appeared obviously to have been laid by the same bird.

_Eggs._--The eggs of this species of cuckoo are all of the same type, white eggs sparsely marked with tiny black specks, sometimes confined to the larger end only. Several oviduct eggs have been taken, the first by Brooks from the oviduct of a female he shot in Kashmir on June 17, and three others by Rattray in 1903 on June 10, 15, and 17, respectively. All these were exactly alike and similar to the description given above.

The only two exceptions in coloration I have seen are eggs one of which has a faintly green tinge while the other has an equally faint pink tinge. The first of these was taken from a forktail’s (_Enicurus maculatus guttatus_) nest and the second from that of a tailorbird (_Orthotomus atrogularis nitidus_).

In shape the eggs are rather long ellipses, and the shell is thin and rather fragile for a cuckoo’s.

Forty-one eggs average in size 20.11 by 14.28 millimeters; maxima =25.3= by =16.2=; minima =19.0= by =13.0= millimeters; the same number average in weight 141.4 milligrams; maximum 178; minimum 117 milligrams.

A large double-yolked egg weighs 222 milligrams, while two very small, almost pygmy eggs, weigh only 105 and 112 milligrams.

The method of the deposition of the eggs is not known, but in many cases they could not possibly be laid direct into the nest. The crowned willow warbler makes a nest in a hole in among the roots of trees with so small an entrance and so far in that the cuckoo could not possibly get in to lay her egg nor could she eject it from the cloaca sufficiently far to reach the egg chamber and, if she did, it would certainly break. Nests of the genus _Seicercus_ and of _Acanthopneuste reguloides_ are so shaped and situated that though the cuckoo could not enter them she could very often eject the eggs into them without much difficulty by clinging to their tops or sides during the operation.

_Young._--Nothing is recorded, as to incubation, but I believe it to take only 10 or 11 days, i. e., much the same period as for the eggs of the small warblers the cuckoo selects to cuckold.

Ejection of young undoubtedly takes place in the same manner as that by which it is effected by the common cuckoo, the young cuckoo hoisting the other occupants of the nest, either eggs or young birds, onto its shoulder and then pushing them over the edge of the nest. I have seen several young birds from two days to a week old in the nests of various warblers, and they have always been alone. The young cuckoo has the same dorsal interscapular arrangement as that found in the nestling _canorus_ to assist it in carrying out the fratricide.

_Plumages._--Male: Similar to the male of _Cuculus c. canorus_ and _C. c. bakeri_ but less dark on the upper parts than the latter and always to be distinguished from all races of the canorus group by having the edge of the wing pure white and not barred. On the lower surface the white bars are broader and the black bars in consequence wider apart, while they are blacker and bolder in appearance.

Female: Similar to the male but generally with a more rufous tinge on the breast and abdomen; the under tail coverts are often pale fulvous with black crossbars.

The female has a hepatic phase like that of _C. c. canorus_.

Juvenile: In first plumage blackish brown above, the feathers all broadly edged with white; the wing quills are barred with rufous on the outer webs; the chin, throat, and breast are blackish, the feathers narrowly fringed with white and the rest of the lower parts white, or faintly fulvous-white, heavily barred with strong bands of black.

In intermediate stage between juvenile and adult the plumage is slaty, the feathers very narrowly edged with white; below, the chin, throat, and upper breast are blackish, the feathers broadly fringed with white and the remainder of the lower parts like the adult.

Hepatic young are like the hepatic female adult but less richly colored and more heavily banded below with blackish, especially on the chin, throat, and breast. Some specimens of young birds in the British Museum collection seem to be changing from a juvenile hepatic plumage into a normal adult plumage.

The white nuchal spot is very seldom seen in the young of this cuckoo but is occasionally present.

_Measurements._--Wing 208 to 226; tail 151 to 176; tarsus about 20 or 21; culmen 20 to 22 millimeters. The female is little, if any, smaller than the male in Indian birds, but of Chinese birds La Touche gives the following measurements: Male, 23 (2 examples), wing 200 to 226; female, 22 (1 example), 190–200; culmen, male, 20–22; female, 19 millimeters.

_Colors of soft parts._--Iris yellow or “grey with brown inner circle” (La Touche); bill dark horny green, the base of the upper, and most of the lower, mandible yellowish horny, the gape still more yellow; legs and feet wax-yellow to rather bright yellow.

_Food._--This also is the same in character as that of _Cuculus canorus_, but _C. optatus_ also devours more hard-bodied insects such as Cicadae and many small and some quite large beetles, while it feeds rather more exclusively on food obtained near the tops of high trees. I have never seen it feeding on the ground, nor have I noticed it in scrub or bushes except when it was probably hunting for a nest in which to deposit its egg.

_Behavior._--I do not think that this bird could be distinguished from _Cuculus canorus_, except by its voice, by any field naturalist until the bird was actually in his hand. In flight, perching position, and general action I have been able to discern no difference of any kind between the two birds unless it is that when the two were seen together _optatus_ looks a smaller, slighter bird than _canorus_ and may fly a trifle faster with quicker wing beats.

Both sexes have the habit, as _canorus_ has, of sitting, almost motionless, for a very long time in one position, possibly in the case of the female while she is watching certain birds and waiting for them to give away the site of their nest, or when she is waiting for the precise moment at which to fly down and place her egg in the nest of the foster parent selected to receive it.

_Voice._--The call of the male consists of four notes, two rapid, then a pause, and then two more, all of the same cadence, sounding like _hoo-hoo hoo-hoo_. When one is close to the bird a fifth note can be heard preceding these, much higher pitched and far less resounding so that at a little distance only the four notes are heard. The call is a typical cuckoo note, and hearing it one would expect to find that a cuckoo had uttered it. There is also a sweet trilling note that is rarely heard, and I cannot say whether it is uttered by one sex or both, but I suspect it to correspond to the bubbling note uttered by the female _canorus_. Although occasionally this cuckoo calls on moonlight nights it does not do so with anything like the perseverance of the common cuckoo, nor is it so incessantly vocal during the day.

_Enemies._--The same as those of the common cuckoo, but the young do not suffer so much from exposure by falling out of nests too small or too weak to hold them. In the case, however, of eggs laid in holes occupied by the nests of the crowned willow warbler the young birds have to vacate them at a very early stage or they would be unable to do so when full grown and would be incarcerated in them for life. As these cuckoos select ground nests so largely in which to deposit their eggs, these and the young birds when hatched do not suffer so greatly from the crows and magpies who hunt the hedges and bushes, but, on the other hand, they are easier for snakes and lizards to get at.

_Fall._--Migration from the breeding grounds in northwest India apparently commences in the end of August and continues to the end of September or early October. From northeast India they would seem to migrate later by about a month, birds continuing to call up to the beginning of August, while in 1914 an egg was taken as late as August 20. It is a curious fact that in the continent of India birds do not seem to move far south and have only been recorded in winter from many places in the plains of the northwest and Punjab and from Lucknow, Jodhpore, Fategarh, Bihar, Dibrugarh and Cachar, in the United Provinces, Bengal, and Assam. Farther east it migrates much farther south and has been recorded from all over Burma to the extreme south, and from the Andamans and Nicobars, while it also ranges throughout the Malay Peninsula and the Austro-Malaysian islands to New Guinea and Australia. Birds found in winter east of Burma are certainly those that breed north of China and probably migrate, more or less, due north and south, and I am inclined to think it is possible that birds from the Himalayas migrate almost entirely to the east in India and then southeast through Burma and the Malay States. Otherwise it seems incredible that no specimens should ever be obtained, in south India or even central India, of a migrant which in and from China wanders so very far south in the winter months.

DISTRIBUTION

The Himalyan cuckoo is found throughout the Himalayas and central Asia from the extreme west of India and Baluchistan, while in central Siberia it extends from Dauria and Lake Baikal to the extreme east of the northern Chinese mountains and, possibly, to Japan. In China La Touche (1931) summarizes its distribution as follows: “China generally, Szechuen, Kwangsi, Fohkien, Lower Yangtse, Shaweishan, Shantung, Chihli (migrant).” To this he adds, “On the whole this Cuckoo is not common in North China, and very few have been noted by Dr. Wilder,” and, again, noting on my distribution of the summer range he adds, “Corea and Manchuria should probably be added.”

It certainly occurs and breeds in all the higher hills in Burma; quite commonly in the Chin Hills and rarely to the east in the Ruby Mines district and the Shan States.

Its appearance on the American list is due to a specimen obtained on St. Paul Island, Pribilof Islands, Alaska, on July 4, 1890 (W. Palmer, 1894).

CUCULUS CANORUS BAKERI Hartert

KHASIA HILLS CUCKOO

CONTRIBUTED BY EDWARD CHARLES STUART BAKER

HABITS

This most interesting race of the common European cuckoo was given a name in 1912 by Dr. Hartert (1912), no museum possessing sufficient material until 1911 to substantiate the differences that both Dr. Hartert and I believed to distinguish this subspecies from those others already accepted.

The Khasia Hills cuckoo is a race that breeds at considerably lower elevations than do either _C. c. canorus_ or _C. c. telephonus_ and, speaking generally, haunts during the breeding season more densely forested areas in much hotter and far more humid climates. Thus in the Khasia Hills of Assam, where it is extraordinarily common, it may be found in all the higher ranges at and about Sherraponji between 3,500 and 6,500 feet frequenting forest that is always lush and green, with luxuriant undergrowth and with an almost impenetrable tangle of creepers, beautiful orchids, ferns, and parasites growing on every tree. Here the rainfall averages about 550 inches in the year, while as much as 72 inches have fallen in 24 hours and over 700 inches in the 12 months. They are, however, equally numerous, between 4,000 and 6,000 feet around Shillong, where the rainfall is less than 150 inches in the year and where, in many parts, pine woods take the place of the wet evergreen forests.

Although on the whole this race of the cuckoo certainly frequents denser and thicker forest than do the other forms, individuals vary greatly in their tastes and those parasitic on pipits and other species of birds, which breed in the open grass plains, also haunt the same kind of country as that in which these birds breed. At the same time even in these places they always select those that contain a certain number of trees on which they can perch and from which they can survey the surrounding area and watch the fosterers to their nests. In the Khasia Hills many cuckoos are parasitic on the common Indian and Blyth’s pipits, which are to be found nesting on the wide stretches of open grassland above Shillong, the former on ridges and plateaus up to some 5,500 feet and the latter on those above that altitude. Intermediate in habits between the evergreen forest cuckoos and the open country cuckoos there are others that haunt the more open pine forests, especially those that have brooks and small rivers running through them, or are broken up by ravines in which small deciduous trees, bushes, and brambles grow freely to the exclusion of the somber pine trees.

In Burma this cuckoo is commoner in the Ruby Mines district and in the Southern Shan States than anywhere else. T. R. Livesey, who has had a wonderful experience with them in the latter country, informs me that in these districts they frequent both the open deciduous forests as well as the open country of scrub and grass land around towns and villages, even depositing their eggs in the nests of birds breeding in and close to the gardens of houses occupied by Europeans or by Shans.

After the breeding season this cuckoo may be found in almost any kind of country that is fairly well-wooded, while in the plains of Bengal and Lower Assam it seems to have a special liking for mango orchards and patches of jungles in tea plantations.

_Spring._--In Assam those individuals that have migrated into the plains and lower hills the preceding autumn return to their breeding quarters in the end of March or early April, their numbers increasing rapidly up to the end of that month, when their mellow call may be heard almost continually in every direction at all elevations between 3,500 and 6,500 feet. Exact dates of arrival are recorded nowhere that I can trace, but I have eggs taken on April 14, odd eggs taken in the third week in April, and many after the 25th of that month.

In the Chin Hills, between Assam and the Ruby Mines district and Shan States, most cuckoos commence breeding about the middle of April, arriving in their breeding haunts nearly a month earlier. Here they are common at about 4,000 feet upward and haunt much the same kinds of country as they do in Assam, certainly breeding up to 7,000 feet, or a little over, as eggs have been taken on Mount Victoria and the hills above Fort White.

In the Shan States Mr. Livesey informs me that few if any birds remain above 4,000 feet in winter, in the end of August and early September the great majority moving into the lower hills and adjoining plains. The first birds returning to the higher hills put in an appearance early in March and commence to lay the last of that month, March 27 being the earliest date on which he has taken eggs and July 1 the latest.

The length of the breeding season is much more extended than is that of the European cuckoo (_C. c. canorus_) or the central Asian bird (_C. c. telephonus_), doubtless owing to the same factors of cold, food supply, etc., that compel the more northern birds of all families to compress their breeding arrangements into a far shorter time than that occupied by the southern birds, for whom temperature, food supply, and other factors are more or less favorable almost throughout the year.

The individual cuckoo, however, is governed in her time of egg-laying by the habits of the foster parent that she selects to bring up her young, while all cuckoos, as well as the foster parents, are affected more or less in their spring migration and breeding time by the late or early arrival of the rains and the consequent shortage or abundance of insect life. In Assam, where the rainy season is long and the rainfall heavy, eggs may be found in some numbers from April 20 to the middle of June and, then, in decreasing numbers, to the end of June, after which they further decrease in number until, after the middle of July, few will be taken, though my latest recorded date for a cuckoo’s egg is August 24. In Burma, as already noted, birds commence laying about a month earlier, and few eggs are found after early June.

The 1,366 eggs in my collection were taken as follows: One in March (taken in Burma), 104 in April, 608 in May, 527 in June, 114 in July, and 12 in August. It may, I think, be accepted that migrating birds arrive on their breeding ground some two to three weeks before commencing to lay and leave again about one to two months after the deposition of their last eggs.

In Burma the peak of laying is reached in early May; in Assam not until the end of that month.

_Courtship._--I can find nothing recorded as to the conduct of courtship between males and females during the breeding season and have, therefore, only my own observations to guide me. There appears to be no true courtship, and I have no doubt that, except in very rare instances, cuckoos do not pair, though in certain areas, where the bird is uncommon, a male and female may possibly mate and remain together throughout the breeding season. This is probably the case in North Cachar, where the bird is rare, breeding in deeper forest than I have seen anywhere else, and where I have seldom heard more than one male calling in any one particular area or found more than one type of egg deposited therein. In the Khasia Hills, in which district the birds swarm in incredible numbers, both sexes were undoubtedly promiscuous in their sexual relations. I have personally seen a female accept the attentions of one male and then fly off to a tree close by and accept another pursuing male within a few minutes. On this occasion several, I think four, males were pursuing the one female, who flew slowly from one tree to another on a roadside. Settling on one of these she crouched on a large bough, half lying there with both wings hanging slightly lowered and quivering, while her head was held quite low, her whole attitude expressing invitation. The first male, of those following her, at once accepted this after which he settled on a branch close by while the female flew away to a tree about 50 paces distant followed by the other three males, one of whom was again accepted by the female who, after the completion of the act flew off accompanied by the remaining two males to a tree beyond my view.

Among the Khasias, certain classes of whom are very intelligent observers, it appears to be well known that both sexes of cuckoo exercise no discretion in their love affairs.

_Nesting._--The female cuckoo is, of course, parasitic in her habits, and I have personally taken eggs in the nests of no less than 103 species and subspecies of fosterer (see following list), the very great majority of which are, however, undoubtedly abnormal or casual only, for I feel satisfied that when the usual foster parent has no nest available the cuckoo will eventually deposit her egg in that of any other bird that may be convenient. Repeated instances have come within my own experience in which a cuckoo normally parasitic on one bird deposits one or more of a series of eggs in a nest utterly unlike those of the usual fosterer, merely because she has already exhausted all the nests known to her of the latter.

LIST OF FOSTER PARENTS
eggs
_Suya crinigera_ (subspecies 6) 215
_Cisticola jundicis cursitans_ 276
_Cisticola exilis tytleri_ (generally with _C. j. c._ series) 7
_Tribura luteiventris_ 32
_Orthotomus_ (species and subspecies 2) 27
_Acanthopneuste reguloides harterti_ 9
_Megalurus palustris_ 7
Miscellaneous warblers (abnormal fosterers, 9) 25
_Anthus_ (various species and subspecies, 8) 199
_Rhodophila ferrea haringtoni_ 18
_Saxicola caprata burmanica_ 55
_Rhyacornis fuliginosus_ 25
_Enicurus_ (species 2) 25
_Petrophila (Monticola)_ (species 2) 21
Turdidae (abnormal fosterers, species 8) 15
_Cyanosylvia leucura_ 13
_Eumyias thalassina thalassina_ 63
_Niltava_ (species 3) 43
Muscicapidae (abnormal fosterers, species 12) 22
_Lanius nigriceps nigriceps_ 35
Laniidae (abnormal fosterers, species 2) 2
Troglodytidae (species 3) 21
_Mesia agentauris_ 46
_Leiothrix calipyga_ 33
Timaliidae (abnormal fosterers, species 32) 92
Other abnormal fosterers, _Passer_, _Sitta_, _Parus_, etc.
(7 species) 8
Total _Fosterers:_ Normal 23, abnormal 80 ( = 103).

Like the English cuckoo, as Chance (1922) has proved, the Khasia Hills female cuckoo sometimes adopts a certain area of country as its own breeding territory into which it will allow no other female, parasitic on the same foster parent, to enter, though it seems to have no objection to the entry of any number of males or of another female parasitic on a different species. Thus in a certain area close to the house in which I lived in Shillong I found three cuckoos breeding; one depositing its eggs in the nests of the little fantail warbler (_Cisticola juncidis cursitans_), the second in the nests of the verditer flycatcher (_Eumyias thalassina thalassina_), and the third in the nests of the black-headed shrike (_Lanius nigriceps nigriceps_). On another occasion I took eggs of three different cuckoos from nests of _Cisticola_, _Niltava_, and _Leiothrix_ in the same strip of jungle and not 50 yards from one another. Yet another instance of shared territory was a grass-covered hillside occupied by two female cuckoos, the one parasitic on the same little fantail warbler and the other on pipits (species various). Other similar instances were quite common in this district.

My personal experience confirms what those interested in cuckoo-work have for some time maintained in regard to cuckoos being consistently parasitic on one selected foster parent. A good example of this constancy is a series, collected for me by a family of four men trained by myself in cuckoo-work in the Khasia Hills. From 1925 to 1935 these men obtained for me no less than 132 eggs of one cuckoo parasitic on the fantail warbler, all collected in the same area of grass and scrub surrounded by pine forest. Of these 132 eggs only 4 were taken from nests other than those of the little fantail and of these 4, 3 were placed in the nests of another little warbler (_Orthotomus sutorius patia_) and the other in the nest of the Assam brown hill warbler (_Suya crinigera assamica_), both, of course, in the same territory.

In addition to the above I have many series of eggs, numbering 3 to 15, from individual cuckoos, occasionally taken in two or more consecutive years, all placed in nests of the same warbler. Again I have other series of cuckoos’ eggs, some taken from nests of _Suya_ (various species); others from those of _Eumyias_, pipits (various species), the silver-eared mesia (_Mesia a. argentauris_), the Pekin robin (_Leiothrix lutea calipyga_), and other fosterers. As a rule the cuckoo also shows equal constancy to its chosen breeding area, returning year after year to it and leaving it only when the supply of fosterers is exhausted or the nature of the country has been altered by man or some other agency. Where the normal foster parent is exceptionally common, such as are the warblers of the genera _Cisticola_ and _Suya_, the cuckoo often has ample nests in a compact area to act as hosts to her whole series of eggs, and we have found as many as 18 eggs laid by the same individual within such an area. Where, however, the fosterers such as pipits or mesia are less numerous or are breeding in comparatively small areas, some 4 to 10 eggs are laid in the one area and then, when the available nests have all been made use of, the cuckoo removes to another area, generally close by, eventually often returning to the original one later in the season and again cuckolding other nests of the same fosterer.

There can, I think, be no doubt that a cuckoo brought up in a nest of a certain fosterer will deposit its own eggs in nests of the same bird. This theory seems now to be one generally accepted, and certainly my experience goes to confirm this, and in my own collection I have eggs of a very definite type taken for over 30 years in the nests of the same species of fosterer in the same district.

_Eggs._--The eggs of the Khasia Hills cuckoo are of very many and beautiful types of color and character of markings, while the eggs of each individual cuckoo, though varying slightly _inter se_, do not show so great a variation as is found in the eggs of single clutches laid by many species of Passeres or other orders.

Among the most common types of eggs are, naturally, those that have been evolved to assimilate with the eggs of the birds most frequently employed as foster parents. Among these may be mentioned the following: