Fulton. — The Long-tailed Cuckoo. 137 



portion of the South Island by November, and it may be noted 

 that the lirst arrivals sit about among the trees or fly from tree 

 to tree and are silent. Some say that this is due to the fact 

 that they are all of the male sex ; and the same observation 

 has been made about the first arrivals of the Pallid Cuckoo 

 in the southern parts of Australia(60). Nearly a century ago 

 Colonel Montagu remarked that in the spring male Night- 

 ingales always arrived in England before the females, and 

 since that time many observations have confirmed this state- 

 ment concerning the Nightingale and many other birds. Herr 

 Gatke has gone beyond this, and affirms that the forerunners 

 of the spring migration to the north are invariably old males, 

 next come the females, then younger males and females, and 

 finally only birds of the previous year. Supposing these 

 Cuckoos all start about the same time, it is conceivable that 

 during the longest journey they would tail out, and the 

 strongest birds, usually the males, obtain a lead(6i). 



In November the birds becqme active, and begin to utter 

 their harsh grating " whiz-z-z-z-z-t." This grating whistle is 

 no doubt the call between tlie sexes, and is uttered, it is 

 probable, by the male alone. I am of opinion that in those 

 cases where birds are heard calling from tree to tree, and 

 apparently answering each other, the calls are really those of 

 several males ; but on this point I should like positive evi- 

 dence. The birds keep to the tops of the tall pines and 

 creeper-covered trees in the day-time, and are often hard to 

 locate, and it is extremely difficult to decide whether a par- 

 ticular tree is the hiding-place. This is for two reasons, one 

 that the bird, like its fellow-migrani the Shining Cuckoo, is 

 endowed with what Sir Walter Duller calls " ventriloquistic 

 powers " — that is, of increasing the volume of its notes from a 

 very quiet call to a loud piercing succession of sounds, which 

 performance produces exactly the impression that the bird is 

 at first a long way off, and then gradually approaches the 

 listener. Even when one has fairly decided that the bird is 

 in a certain tree it is very hard to detect it with the eye, for 

 the Kohoperoa has the habit of frequently perching along, 

 instead of across, the branch, a method of concealment easy 

 of performance to a bird with the characteristic zygodactyl 

 feet of this family (40a). 



The Kohoperoa likes the thickly foliaged English trees, 

 which stand well out from the native bush — macrocarpas, firs, 

 Pmus insigiiis, trees which are seldom frequented by our 

 indigenous birds, and never inhabited by them. In this way 

 the Cuckoo escapes a good deal of the incessant harrying 

 which he used to undergo ; and, besides this, these trees are 

 especially suited to his peculiar modern appetite, as, in addi- 

 tion to the myriads of insects which infest them. Sparrows, 



