' Fulton. — The ripiivharauroa, or Bronze Cuckoo. 399 



This was undoubtedly a female bird with two male birds. Exactly the 

 same description almost to a word is recorded elsewhere, and has been 

 frequently given to me about the long-tailed cuckoo. " On one occasion 

 I saw about five or six ; they seemed to be fighting, for they flew close past 

 me. As it was the early season, they were probably males fighting for a 

 mate." [Otcujo Witness.] 



There is another point with regard to the call that must be noted, and 

 that is the extraordinary eft'ect it has upon the other birds in the neigh- 

 bourhood. As soon as the call begins anywhere near a spot where sparrows 

 and linnets abound, a chattering and screaming at once is set up, and all 

 the birds in the vicinity congregate and hunt the intruder. The tomtit 

 and fantail seem to be very much afraid of the cuckoo, and usually retire 

 hastily on hearing its cry. A bronze cuckoo has been seen to go into a 

 willow-tree in which was a nest of the grey warbler, and the two little birds 

 stayed close to the nest absolutely still, as if paralysed with fear, or 

 fascinated. The cuckoo flitted about a little, and then flew away, with- 

 out molesting them or their nest. 



Sometimes the pipiwharauroa is seen on the topmost branch of a high 

 tree, and when it gives forth its note it is at once hunted from its perch 

 by tuis and mockers. If it flies away and alights on the highest limb of 

 some other high tree — generally a leafless limb — it is again hunted off by 

 the tui. Mr. Mahoney, Native teacher at Hiruharama, Waiapu County, 

 Hawke's Bay, says he has heard the bird call, and on running to the window 

 has seen it fly away, leaving the sparrows, minahs, yellow-hammers, and 

 thrushes discussing his sudden appearance in very excited and indignant 

 tones. 



The kingfisher is an enemy, and has been seen chasing the cuckoo from 

 tree to tree. It may be taken for granted that this hostility is due as much 

 to the bird's thieving propensities as* to its habit of entrusting the hatching 

 of its progeny in many instances to other birds. The long-tailed cuckoo (22) 

 was similarly charged, and most ornithologists discredited the idea of its 

 predatory habits, and said that the hostility of other birds was due to the 

 fear of having their nests burdened with a parasite which would soon destroy 

 the rightful tenants. Sir Alfred Newton and many others considered the 

 accounts of cuckoos being found with eggs in heir bills was no proof of 

 stealing — that the whole story was a vulgar error, and that in all cases the 

 egg was that of the cuckoo herself. Those of you who have read my papers 

 on the long-tailed cuckoo know how I disproved that theory, and showed 

 what the bird does in the way of egg and chick stealing in New Zealand (23). 

 Similarly, the few instances I give you about the bronze cuckoo show that 

 it also takes eggs from little birds' nests, but it is not likely that it takes 

 chicks, as its size and structure are not suitable for tearing up little birds, 

 as does the koekoea, nor is its throat large enough to swallow unfledged 

 chicks whole, as that rapacious creature does. 



One correspondent whose letter I have mislaid saw a bronze cuckoo 

 in the garden with a blue egg in its claw, and it was pecking at it and eating 

 it. Basil Henning, of Akaroa, gives a thoroughly clear account of the 

 same thing. He says, " I wanted a bronze cuckoo for my collection, and, 

 while waiting hidden, the bird came down to the brown wren's nest, in 

 which were four eggs. It entered the nest and flew off with one egg. When 

 I killed the bird the egg was broken. I am certain the bird intended to eat 

 the egg, and the egg taken out was the brown wren's — i.e., brown creeper — 

 and exactly the same as the other eggs in the nest." These two instances, 



