128 Transactions. — Zoology. 



tree, and considered that that was what it was doing. The 

 Sparrows were greatly excited, and followed it from tree to 

 tree as it moved. My two boys say they saw eggs fall when 

 the bird was so employed, and that one boy climbed the tree 

 and found a mutilated nestling in the nest"(40e). "It can 

 fly down any one of the small birds with the greatest of ease, 

 picking it up in its claws when flying swiftly over it. It is 

 very fond of going into smaller birds' nests and eating the 

 young birds, but rarely stops to eat them near the nest, but 

 flies off to a tree with its prey "(40/). A lady from Queens- 

 town says, " One day I surprised a Cuckoo in a gully, and it 

 flew off with a small object in its beak. A pair of Goldfinches 

 seemed in great distress, and on searching I found the nest 

 with a few feathers in it. The nest had apparently been 

 recently occupied by young birds, though I am not positive of 

 this, and I was not near enough to see the small object held 

 by the Cuckoo "(40f/). "I once saw in a paddock a strange 

 bird which I took for a Sparrow-hawk. It was at the time 

 eating a small bird, and it flew about 5 chains towards a gorse 

 hedge. It appeared in its movements quite unlike an ordinary 

 Hawk, otherwise I should not have noticed it. It did not rise 

 high off the ground, but swooped along at a tremendous rate 

 about 3 ft. ofl', and simply rose over the hedge without apparent 

 wing-motion, and, I think, rounded on the other side "(40/;). 

 When ordinary food is scarce, as in early spring, and the 

 birds have just arrived on the coast, they have to take what 

 they can get, and are then carnivorous at times, for one of 

 my lighthouse correspondents says, "The birds I saw were 

 very much the colour of a Hawk spotted underneath, and with 

 a very long tail, and flew very fast. There were half a dozen 

 of them flying about, and I saw a Hawk and Seagulls chasing 

 them. One I fired at had a small piece of rabbit— it looked 

 like a leg — and it was pecking at it and flew off with it "(40/). 



I now come to more positive evidence : " It is undoubtedly 

 true that the Cuckoo robs the nests of other birds, as several 

 members of our family witnessed last year. Our attention 

 was attracted by a great commotion in the garden, and on 

 going out we found two Blackbirds in a state of great 

 excitement, uttering loud cries, and flying round a birch- 

 tree. As we watched out flew a Cuckoo with a small bird in 

 its beak; it flew into the orchard, and the Blackbirds chased 

 it, dashing past it on one side and then the other, making 

 an incessant noise "(4O7). " I have seen a Cuckoo repeatedly 

 with young birds in its bill, and have examined the nest after 

 the Cuckoo has been at them, and have found nothing but tiie 

 shell of the egg left. It chiefly robs Sparrows' nests "(iOf). 

 " I have seen one go into a red-pine tree and take from a hole 

 in the trunk a young Sparrow, fly off into the scrub with it, 



