215 



OOLOGICAL NOTES. 



By Alfred J. North, F.L.S., Australian Museum, Sydney. 



With the exception of an immature egg of Eudynaniis cyano- 

 cephala previously described by me,"^ the eggs of the following 

 species are now, so far as I am aware, described for the first time. 



EuDYNAMis CYANOCEPHALA, Latham. 



Elinder's Cuckoo is freely distributed during the spring and 

 summer months throughout the coastal scrubs of Eastern Aus- 

 tralia, its range also extending around the northern and extreme 

 north-western portions of the continent and to New Guinea and 

 Timor. In New South Wales it generally arrives during the 

 latter part of September, and is more frequently met with in the 

 tropical and luxuriant brushes of the northern coastal rivers; 

 localities where the wild fig, native cherry and numerous other 

 fruit and berry-bearing trees and shrubs abound, and which 

 afford this species an abundant supply of food. It does not 

 confine its diet entirely to wild fruits and berries, for in the high 

 table-lands of the New England District it freely enters gardens 

 and orchards in search of food, committing great depredations 

 among cultivated fruits, especially plums and cherries. About 

 the end of February it retires northwards again. Hitherto the 

 only egg of this parasitic Cuckoo I had ever seen was an imma- 

 ture one obtained by Mr. George Masters at Gayndah, Queensland, 

 on the 25th of November, 1870. Having shot at a female and 

 broken her wing, while pursuing her on the ground the egg was 

 dropped. For an opportunity of examining a normal e>gg of this 

 Cuckoo I am indebted to Mr. S. W. Jackson, who recently watched 

 and waited while one of these parasites deposited her egg in the 



* Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. VV. Vol. ii. 2nd Series, p. 544 (1887). 



