398 Transactions. 



panes of the lighthouse " ; and during the next day he noticed one flying 

 about the island. It allowed him to get within a few yards of it, so he 

 supposed it was pretty well exhausted. The wind for the previous week 

 had been from the westward, blowing strong. This bird had come on, 

 and almost overshot the island during the night by mistake, or possibly 

 was one of those which had previously migrated to the extreme eastern 

 portion of the New Zealand plateau — namely, the Chatham Islands — for 

 which it was directly heading. 



These references make it fairly clear that the birds arrive in considerable 

 numbers by a north-west or westerly wind about the latter end of September, 

 and, striking the coast, spread all over the Dominion and on to the out- 

 lying islands in a few days, or even possibly hours. They keep on arriving 

 for several weeks, and, though often seen, are not heard for some days after 

 their advent. On the outlying parts of the coast they are seen in greater 

 numbers, as these are principal ports of arrival from which the birds spread 

 out over the country. 



The birds soon begin their beautiful call of " kui, kui," generally at night 

 at first, and whether the full song is uttered by the male bird or female, 

 or both, has not yet been determined. It is possible that the incomplete 

 song is that of the male, and the beautiful twittering call with the flom'ish 

 at the end the female's. This interesting point can only be cleared up by 

 getting specimens of these birds during their call. 



It is quite certain that, whether due to losses on the voyage or for some 

 other reason not yet understood, the females are always in a considerable 

 minority, and that the bronze cuckoo, like parasitic cuckoos and cowbirds 

 elsewhere, is polyandrous, and the ventriloquistic whistle which is character- 

 istic of birds of similar habits all the world over is part of the complicated 

 scheme of parasitism (22). Those who are interested in this question will 

 also find it fully set out and explained in my papers on the long-tailed 

 cuckoo (21). 



With regard to the whistle, I have been standing under a manuka-bush, 

 and have heard the bronze cuckoo whistling " kui, kui, kui," and have 

 located it to my satisfaction to be calling from the top of a white-pine 50 to 

 100 yards away, and, say, 100 ft. up in the air ; then I have changed my 

 opinion when the second silvery bar began and progressed ; then another 

 set of notes, and I have decided that the bird was in a big broadleaf-tree, 

 say 50 ft. or more away ; then a fresh set of " kui," and I have begun to 

 wonder if the bird was not in the very bush under which I was standing ; 

 and finally, with the notes welling out into a piercing call, I have found it 

 Avithin 5 ft. or 6 ft. of my head, shaking and twittering, with its quivering 

 wnngs half-spread, expressive, as Buller says, " of a state of highest ecstacy." 

 Now when I hear a cuckoo calling I stand perfectly still and search the 

 closest boughs with extreme care, and then I can generally see the bird 

 calling quietly and softly, and can almost detect the extra power and 

 force it puts into its notes by its gradually increasing movement, and I 

 might almost say increasing chest-expansion. The bird seems actually 

 to swell itself out much in the way the tui does when he is showing ofE for 

 the benefit of his white-throated consort.. This cuckoo's call is one of the 

 most perfect examples of ventriloquism, and the harsh cry of the koekoea 

 is thrown out in the same extraordinary manner. 



Touching on the question of polyandry, one correspondent says, " On 

 the 13th October I saw three in a young rata-tree ; one was sitting with its 

 wings spread, the other two were chasing each other through the branches." 



