Fulton. — The Long-tailed Cuckoo. 143 



June, and suggests that some spend the winter with us(66). 

 BuUer thinks this unhliely, save on very rare occasions ; but, 

 commenting on the good condition of this bird, expresses 

 himself as astonished at the need for migration when there is 

 evidently in New Zealand abundance of winter food for the 

 Cuckoo(67). That the birds migrate here for breeding pur- 

 poses alone, and not for food, which must be ample in the 

 tropical islands of the Pacific, is now quite certain(81). 

 Cheeseman, quoting Bell, of the Kermadecs, says that the 

 birds are annual visitants there, thou^jh bv no means com- 

 mon(68) ; but in a subsequent volume of the Transactions 

 quotes, from the same informant, that the bird is a permanent 

 resident of that island(69). Kirk states that both the Long- 

 tailed and Shining Cuckoos may occasionally be seen in New- 

 Zealand all through the winter season(70). Sandager says 

 that two wintered at Mokohinou in 1888(71). There is little 

 doubt that the birds reported to me this year from Cape 

 Palliser had wintered near there, visited the neighbourhood of 

 the lighthouse, stayed for a few weeks, and then left for their 

 breeding-haunts in the south(40i). A correspondent from the 

 Bay of Plenty tells me that he has known of their having been 

 seen in the bush there in the winter-time(71(x). Mr. McLean, 

 of Te Tua, Southland, assures me that one was heard there 

 all through the winter of 1903, and that he had never known 

 of such a thing before. They are to be found on the 

 Chatham Islands and the Auckland Islands, according to 

 Travers, but I can find no details of their arrival or departure 

 therefrom(72) ; in New Caledonia in March and April(73) ; 

 and in the Solomon Islands in April and May ; and, as 

 Captain Hutton says, the evidence is strong that they leave 

 New Zealand in the autumn and travel north-west to the 

 tropical islands of the Pacific(75). Finch and Hartlaub give 

 Fiji(74), Marquesas Islands, Tonga, Samoa, Cook Islands, and 

 New Zealand as their habitat, and we can now accept as 

 certain that these birds, which are often referred to as being 

 feeble in wing-power, twice annually perform the extraor- 

 dinary feat of flying through the air for a distance of over a 

 thousand miles before obtaining rest for their weary pinions. 



Before concluding I should like, in a few words, to give 

 some suggestions as to how the habit of parasitism in birds 

 has become established. What is the reason for this extra- 

 ordinary habit of imposing eggs upon other birds? Why this 

 utter neglect of parental responsibilities ? Among other para- 

 sitic birds known to science are Molothrus, or Cowbird, of 

 America ; Cassidix, or Rice Crackle, of South America ; and 

 Indicator, or Honey-guide, of South Africa ; and among these 

 species are to be found all the stages between true nest- 

 building and true parasitism. The generally accepted idea 



