1897] NOTES AND COMMENTS 293 



will be valuable to naturalists elsewhere than in Australia. The 

 Australian species which have come under observation are carefully 

 described and figured. 



In addition to such systematic work, Mr Froggatt turns his 

 attention to economic problems, and we have received several of his 

 entomological notes from the Agricultural Gazette of New South 

 Wales for the current year. Some of the insects dealt with are 

 native species, which have become destructive in gardens and 

 orchards, while others are familiar British forms introduced with 

 European plants. 



The Cuckoo 



The nesting habits of cuckoos are always interesting, and Mr A. J. 

 Campbell has recorded in the Victorian Naturalist for August a list 

 of the foster-parents of the Pallid Cuckoo (Cuculus pallidus, Lath.) 

 of Australia. The observations show that the cuckoo almost always 

 selects open nests, and that the Honey-eaters are the most favoured 

 foster-parents. Mr Campbell mentions that the supposition that 

 the cuckoo throws out the egg or eggs of the foster-parent to make 

 room for its own has not been proved with regard to the Pallid 

 Cuckoo ; but he has found a broken egg of the bird underneath the 

 nest of the White-shouldered Caterpillar-catcher (Zalage tricolor). 

 At present there is no record of any cuckoo's egg having actually 

 been taken from any Caterpillar-catcher's nest, though one of these 

 birds has been observed feeding a young Pallid Cuckoo. 



The Mental Development of a Child 



The latest of the series of larger monographs published by the 

 editors of the Psychological Review is a careful record by Mrs 

 Moore of the behaviour of her boy during his first two years. Such 

 records by psychologically-instructed observers are likely to be of 

 much use for child-psychology ; and this may be said of the present 

 one, though the want of arrangement in the earlier part detracts 

 seriously from its value. Great masses of facts are bewildering 

 unless arranged on some principles. The writer begins very sug- 

 gestively by distinguishing four periods — first, of seeing till the end 

 of the fourth month ; second, of feeling or fingering things till the 

 seventh month ; third, of examination or more systematic explora- 

 tion ; fourth, of speaking from the close of the first year. Unfor- 

 tunately, this division does not reappear in the body of the work. 

 The classification of movements is also confused. But having said 

 this, we may be grateful to Mrs Moore for what she has given us ; 

 and it will be best here to select a few of the interesting points 

 which occur in the course of the work. The first is a notice of 



