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Cuculus Canorus on the North American Continent

Wilson C. Hanna

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Cuculus canorus on the North American Continent.-Under date of July 25, 1946, an Eskimo on the Seward Peninsula, in Alaska, wrote to me saying, “I myself got only one bird which I don’t know as it’s the first kind I have seen. It may be Common bird to you but it’s a rare bird up here I wish I had it with eggs I got this bird up at tundra.” Other notes in the letter showed that it was collected near Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, on the mainland of North America. I hardly knew what to expect as he also stated that it was a “Siberian bird (or Flicker) .”

. On August 21, 1946, I received the specimen in good condition and was agreeably surprised to find that it was a cuckoo that is new to the North American mainland. The label a,ttached to the specimen read “Siberian (Flicker) June 28, 1946. FEMALE.” I gave it my number 8295 and sent it to Dr. Herbert Friedmann for proper identification, as a paper by Friedmann and Riley (Auk, 48, 1931:269) seemed to be the latest information concerning the Asiatic cuckoos on the islands between Alaska and Siberia.

Under date of September 5,1946, Dr. Friedmann wrote as follows: “The bird is a Siberian Cuckoo, Cuculus mnorus. It is a young bird and is not completely identifiable to subspecies but is probably of the race telephones.” This is the first time that Cucu2u.s cnno~us has been collected on the North American continent.-WnsoN C. HANNA, Colton, California, September l?, 1946.

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