142 Traniiactio)is. — Zoology. 



loudly in the Dunedin Town Belt as late as the 12th February. 

 Professor Benhara saw some making a disturbance in the tops 

 of some Piiius insignis in the Eangitata district in February of 

 last year, and 1 saw several disporting themselves in the 

 garden of the late Mr. Eobert Gillies on the 7th February, 

 1897. Captain Mair tells us that he has seen them in flocks 

 on the Hurukaureo Eiver in February, and this is another 

 point deserving of attention, to which I shall refer later 

 on (63). The Cuckoo at Milford Sound seems to have laid as 

 late as the middle of January, and, giving a month or six 

 weeks, the nearly adult birds would appear about March. 

 The young, being distinctly spotted on the back, are readily 

 distinguished from the adult. 



About February or March they begin to disappear from 

 Otago, some receding gradually north, others probabl\- 

 leaving direct, the young ones remaining till the last. Mr. 

 McLean, of Te Tua, says, " Several years ago, some 

 time in February, I saw a number of them — there must 

 have been over a dozen — assemble on some trees near 

 Orepuki one morning. This was the first time I had ever 

 seen such a thing. I was passing at the time, and 

 when I returned they were gone, in what direction I do 

 not know, but as I did not see any more that season I 

 presume they were preparing to migrate. Mr. Tapper, of 

 Waiau, in March, 1902, saw as many as nine or ten Cuckoos 

 in the gum-trees near his house, within a distance of 20 yards, 

 and they were making a great noise amongst themselves(lOl). 

 Mr. Byers, of Stirling, informs me that " one morning in early 

 February I saw six Cuckoos all on one tree together ; they 

 were making a great noise, not their usual long-drawn-out 

 chirp, but a twittering call; my impression was tliat they were 

 mustering their forces for migration "(38m). From this it 

 will be seen that they do not always recede gradually north- 

 wards, but are often seen in the autumn assembling in Hocks 

 and suddenly disappearing, and I am of opinion that in many 

 eases they start off on their return journey direct from any 

 one point in New Zealand, and that when once they have 

 risen into the air they probably do not alight until they have 

 reached their tropical home. Mr. Smith, of Lake Brunner, says 

 that they arrive in that neighbourhood about the first week in 

 October and leave about the middle of March (64). Hamilton 

 records an instance of the bird being seen in the Petane 

 Valley, Hawke's Bay, the last week in March, and asks 

 whether any evidence is to be had as to its wintering 

 there(65). To this query I may say that a young one was 

 seen at Queenstown in April, 1902, and its plaintive cry was 

 heard from day to day up till the 5th May (40/). Travers 

 mentions an instance of one being shot at New Plymouth in 



