130 Transactions. — Zoology 



scarcer, the bird has acquired the habit of helping himself 

 from the nests of those who have largely been responsible for 

 the diminished food-supply. Many of my correspondents say 

 that the Cuckoo is now more common than it used to be, 

 and attribute this to the abundance of imported birds. Thus 

 Mr. Arthur, of Lawrence, "I have never seen it in dense, 

 but always in thin bush, and along the edges of the bush, and 

 especially in any patch standing out apart from the main 

 bush, if frequented by a lot of small birds. The Cuckoo seems 

 to have changed its habits during the last twenty years. 

 Before that one heard them often, and saw them occasionally ; 

 hut it was very difficult to get near them. Now they come into 

 the trees in one's garden, and I have seen one in a clump of 

 willow-trees not 12 ft. from my back. door. I have no doubt 

 that the change is caused by the importation of ' Home ' bird^ 

 of different habit from the native ones. Imported birds seem 

 to live and breed in the vicinity of cultivated country, con- 

 sequently, near townships, their nests and young are much 

 more easily found, and are much more numerous than the 

 native ones, and it seems to me that the Cuckoo is living on 

 the eggs and young of these birds ; and, as they are more 

 numerous near dwellings and gardens, the Cuckoo also comes 

 closer, and is more in evidence than it was. I may be wrong 

 in my surmise, but I cannot see how the change in the habits 

 of the bird can be otherwise accounted for. I think if the 

 matter is gone into it will be found that the Cuckoo does the 

 best he can towards combating the Sparrow plague "(40o). I 

 am strongly of opinion that the Cuckoo seldom, if ever, touches 

 the eggs of the Tui or the Mocker, its two chief enemies, and I 

 should require very positive evidence before accepting this 

 accusation as a true one. The Kohoperoa is often chased by 

 these birds because they are frequently his unwilling foster- 

 parents. The Waikato natives say that the Cuckoo lays its 

 eggs in the nests of Tuis, but first eats the Tuis' eggs ; simi- 

 larly, the Urewera natives very naturally say that they know 

 the Koekoea eats the Tuis' eggs because they see the Tuis 

 chasing them. Mr. Crawford Anderson, of Stirling, saw an 

 adult Kohoperoa sitting on the nest of the Mocker : the bird 

 flew off as soon as he moved under the tree. The nest 

 was rather difficult to get at, so he did not examine it for 

 eggs(40j/;). Mr. Reynolds saw a Cuckoo being fed by a Tui, 

 and the presumption is that it had been hatched in the Tui's 

 nest, as the enmity between the birds is notorious, and one 

 can hardly believe that the Tui would fail to recognise and 

 attack its opponent, even though only half-Hedged, were it not 

 that it had hatched it out itself('405). 



Some writers assert that the Cuckoo excites the fury of 

 her dupe by turning out one or more of the eggs, and in this 



