NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 563 



tailed Kingfishers were found breeding both in trees and on the 

 gi'ound ; sonic of the nests I took were twenty and tliirty feet from 

 the ground. They seem to have a certain day to stai't breeding, as I 

 opened ten nests one day and I did not get an egg; five days later 

 I opened twelve nests and got three fresh eggs out of each nest." 

 Breeding mouths, November to February. I have given a most 

 interesting illustration by Mr. Le Souef, showing the mouth of the 

 Kinsrfisher's tunnel in the white ants' hillock. 



Sub-order— Coccyges :— Cuckoos, &c. 



FAMILY—CUCULlD.^i : CUCKOOS. 



Sub-family — Cuculin^. 



449. — CucuLus iNTERMEDius, Vahl — (377) 

 C. rnnnriiiiles, Miiller. 



ORIENTAL CUCKOO. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. iv., pi. 84. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xix., p. 252. 



Previous Description of Eggs. — Hume (Gates' ed.) : Nests and Eggs 

 Indian Birds, vol. ii., p. 381 (1890). 



Geof/rtiphifd! Difitrihutiov . — Queensland; also New Guinea, New 

 Britain, Malay Archipelago, Indian Peninsula, China, Siberia, and 

 Japan. 



Eggs. — A very perfect elongated oval, a shade narrower at one end. 

 The ground-colour is pure white, with a slight gloss. 'Die markings, 

 wliich are evervwhcre ver\' sparse, are somewhat more numerous to- 

 wards the larger end, and consist of minute specks and tiny lines not 

 more than '05 inch in length, of dingy olive-brown and very pale inky 

 purple or purplish-grey. Dimensions, '89 x -6 inch (Hume). 



Ohxervatiiina. — The specimens of this fine Cuckoo examined by 

 Gould were from the northern part of Australia, where they were 

 killed during the month of January. 



No doubt the bird is only a migrant to Australia from Asiatic 

 regions. It is stated that the black bands on the breast are broader 

 and more defined than in the Common Cuckoo (C. canorus) of Europe. 



In India one of the foster parents of the Oriental or Asiatic 

 Cuckoo is the Himalayan Streaked Laughing Tiirush (Tr-orhaJopfernm 

 Imeatmn). 



