_Cuculus taitensis_ Sparrman, Mus. Carls., fasc, 2, 1787, pl. 32.
(No type locality = Tahiti.)
_Eudynamis tahitiensis_ Gräffe, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 2, 1873, p.
123 (Yap).
_Eudynamis taitiensis_ Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, p.
49 (Palau); _idem_, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 12, 1876, pp. 17, 20
(Ponapé); _idem_, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1877 (1878), p. 778
(Ponapé); _idem_, Journ. f. Ornith., 1880, pp. 284, 298 (Ponapé,
Kuschai, Palaos, Marshalls); _idem_, Ibis, 1880, pp. 331, 332
(Taluit); _idem_, Ibis, 1881, pp. 104, 108, 113, 114 (Kushai,
Uleai, Ponapé); Schmeltz and Krause, Ethnogr. Abth. Mus.
Godeffroy, 1881, pp. 281, 299, 353 (Ponapé, Mortlock, Ruk);
Christian, The Caroline Islands, 1899, p. 358 (Ponapé).
_Urodynamis taitensis_ Finsch, Mitth. Ornith. Ver. Wien, 1884, p.
53 (Jaluit, Ponapé, Palau); Bogert, Amer. Mus. Novit., no. 933,
1937, p. 9 (Palau, Ruk, Kusaie, Ponapé, Truk, Iringlove, Wozzie,
Auru, Jaluit, Ratak); Peters, Check-list Birds World, 4, 1940, p.
40 (Palaus, Carolines, Marshall); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d
ed., 1942, p. 201 (Palau, Truk, Lukunor, Ponapé, Kusaie, Jaluit,
Elmore, Aurh, Wotze).
_Urodynamis taitiensis_ Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus.
Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 11 (Pelew, Ualan, Ponapé,
Luganor, Taluit); _idem_, Ibis, 1893, p. 212 (Marshalls); Hartert,
Novit. Zool., 7, 1900, p. 7 (Ruk); Finsch, Notes Leyden Mus., 22,
1900, p. 120 (Ponapé, Palau, Kuschai, Ruk, Mortlock, Uleai,
Jaluit); Takatsukasa and Kuroda, Tori, 1, 1915, p. 52 (Ruk);
Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 58 (Pelew, Ualan,
Ponapé, Luganor, Ruk, Taluit); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev.,
1932, p. 180 (Palau, Kusaie, Ponapé, Luganor, Truk, Jaluit,
Elmore, Aurh, Wotze).
_Urdynamis taitiensis_ Finsch, Sammulung wissensch. Vorträge, 14th
ser., 1900, p. 659 (Palau).
_Eudynamis taitiensis_ Schnee, Zool. Jahrbücher, 20, 1904, p. 389
(Marshalls); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 302
(Micronesia).
_Geographic range._--Breeds in New Zealand and adjacent islands.
Winters chiefly in Polynesia, also Melanesia and Micronesia. In
Micronesia: Palau Islands--exact locality unknown; Caroline
Islands--Yap, Lukunor, Truk, Ponapé, Kusaie; Marshall
Islands--Jaluit, Elmore, Auru, Wotze, Bikini.
_Characters._--Adult: A large, long-tailed cuckoo with upper parts
dark brown; top of head spotted with white; wings, upper back and
tail barred with rufous; underparts pale rufous or buffy-rufous
with shafts of feathers streaked with brown.
_Specimens examined._--Total number, 4 (2 males, 2 females), as
follows: Caroline Islands, AMNH--Truk, 1 (Jan. 7)--Kusaie, 2
(March); Marshall Islands, USNM--Bikini, 1 (May 1).
_Remarks._--Bogert (1937) has summarized the information known
concerning the migration of the New Zealand Long-tailed Cuckoo. Its
principal winter range is in eastern and central Polynesia: Fiji, Samoa,
Tonga, Union, Cook, Society, and Tuamotu islands. The bird reaches the
northern extent of its range in the Marshall and Caroline islands (see
map in Bogert, 1937:3-4). There are no records for the Marianas and only
one record from the Palaus (taken by Peters, as recorded by Finsch,
1875:49). The bird is seemingly much more numerous as a winter visitor
in the Marshall Islands than in the Caroline Islands. Coultas (field
notes) writes that the cuckoo appears at Kusaie about the first of
February. Bogert (1937) remarks that the cuckoo arrives at New Zealand
for the breeding period in October or November and leaves for the
northern wintering grounds in February or March.
Bogert (1937:11) discusses briefly the history of migration of this
bird. She presents as a possible reason for the migration the fact that
the cuckoo feeds principally on caterpillars and that as a consequence
it moves northward to the tropics during the winter months because this
food is not available at the breeding grounds in the winter months.
Perhaps this cuckoo in developing its ability to fly long distances over
water on migration has expanded the breadth of its range eastward into
the oceanic islands, rather than westward through Malaysia and
Melanesia, because it has found less competition from resident birds and
from other migrants for feed and habitat. On many of the islands and
atolls of the Pacific Basin, this species is the only land bird known.
=Otus podarginus= (Hartlaub and Finsch)