Fulton. — The Long-tailed Cuckoo. 135 



tances of more than a thousand miles. These facts seem to 

 have been accepted without sufficient evidence, and to be in 

 themselves extremely improbable. It is observed that the 

 Cuckoos appear annually in certain districts and again dis- 

 appear, but their course does not seem to have been traced ; 

 still less have they been seen arriving or departing across the 

 ocean. In a large and practically unexplored country there is 

 really no reason why the birds should not recede from one 

 end of the Islands to the other "(53, 52). From observations 

 made in the last twenty years it is now certain that they do 

 come from the South Sea Islands annually, and return there 

 after breeding in New Zealand. How they persistently 

 escape observation seems to me to be extraordinary, for I can 

 find no instance of any person having witnessed the arrival of 

 the bird from over the sea, as was reported of the Shining 

 Cuckoo by Mr. Potts(57), and it is curious that no one seems 

 to have found the bird on the sea-shore. 



I have recently communicated with a number of the light- 

 house-keepers on our coast-line, and have gathered some in- 

 teresting information on this subject. The earliest intimation 

 of the appearance of the bird this year comes from Mr. John 

 Duthie, at Cape Palliser, who says that the first Cuckoo 

 arrived on the 6th June, and six or seven a few days later. 

 They hung about the lighthouse for six or eight weeks, and 

 then suddenly disappeared the first week in August(57a). 

 Mr. Hansen, from Pencarrow Head Lighthouse, reported that 

 " one morning in the first week in September, exact day un- 

 certain, when coming from the tower after putting out the 

 light, at 6.30 a.m.," he saw a Long-tailed Cuckoo. The bird 

 was flying low and swiftly, just skimming the tops of the 

 tawhina scrub(576). They have been seen at Doubtless- 

 Bay(57c), at Stephen Island Lighthouse(57(i), at Hunter- 

 viile, and on the Kermadecs(54), and at Akaroa about the 

 middle of the same month. At Mokohinou Lighthouse Mr. 

 Sandager caught several on the lantern at night in Ocio- 

 ber(56), and Mr. Elsdon Best reported a young one at Eua- 

 tahuna on the 10th of that month. This was probably one 

 which had wintered in the Urewera countrv, as it is rather 

 early for the arrival of a last year's bird from Tahiti. The 

 Maori who saw the bird said, " Wainehu ana te ahua," which 

 means that the feathers were greyish or pale, the markings 

 were not plain(4:9c). Mr. McNeill saw the birds at Cape 

 Campbell Lighthouse in thick dirty weather at night in 

 October(41) : they have been frequently seen at Cape Fare- 

 well Lighthouse ; East Takaka(40a) ; Nelson(97) ; Queen 

 Charlotte Sound(102) ; Sumner and New Bnghton(103) ;, 

 Waikouaiti, Otago(104) ; Eiverton(40/) ; and Te Tua, South- 

 land(107), in the second week in October: and I myself 



