566 



A'ESTS A.\D EGGS OV AL ST KALI AX BIRDS. 



Among Mr. J. T. Gillespie's Cuckoo notes for 1893, a season when 

 these birds were plentiful, are the followiug relating to the Palhd 

 Cuckoo ; — ■ 



" 2Sth October, at Springvale. — Single egg of Palhd Cuckoo in nest 

 of Wood Swallow (Artainus son/ id ui J. Saw birds previously building 

 their nest, which was afterwards apparently deserted. 



" 9th November, at Dandenong Creek. — Nest of Lunulated Houey- 

 eater ( Melithreptus lutiulatus), containing two eggs and an egg of the 

 Palhd Cuckoo. 



" 11th November, at Springvale. — From Hooded Robin's f Pctraca 

 hicolor) nest (foimd building tlie previous week) took egg of Palhd 

 Cuckoo. 



" 25th November, at Springvale. — In Whitc-plunied Honeyeater's 

 (Ptilotis penicillataj, one egg and an egg of Pallid Cuckoo. 



" 3rd December. — Took Pallid's egg from nest of Greenfinch (intro- 

 duced bii-d). Finch afterwards laid four eggs.'' 



At a meeting of the Royal Society of Victoria, held November, 

 1894, I read the following note on the occurrence of the egg of the 

 Pallid Cuckoo in the nest of the Magpie Lark (dnill ina) : — 



" My friend, Mr. John Sonimers, of Cheltenham, presented me 

 with a nest taken in the locahty, on the 24th September, 1894, con- 

 taining a set of five eggs of tlie Grallina, together with an egg of the 

 Pallid Cuckoo (C. pallului^). This is the first instance, as far as I 

 am aware, of an egg of this Cuckoo having been found in the nest of 

 a Grallina. ' 



In the Cuckoo's egg incubation was fiu'ther advanced than in the 

 other eggs. 



Occasionally two Cuckoos' eggs are found in the same nest. Here 

 is one of Mr. Charles French, jun.'s notes, thoughtfully sent to me:- — 

 " White-throated Thickhead's (Pnchi/cephala (/ufturtiH.i) nest, contain- 

 ing one fresh egg of Tliickhead and two fresh eggs of Pallid Cuckoo. 

 Locality, Dandenong Ranges. 9tli September, 1895." 



Usually it seems that the Cuckoo's egg is the first deposited in the 

 nest, and not unfrequently before the completion of the nest, as the 

 finding of a Pallid Cuckoo's egg imdemeath the warm lining of a 

 White-naped Honeyeater's nest attests. Once Mr. G. E. Shepherd 

 found the egg of the Pallid Ciickoo sticlring through the bottom of a 

 White-plumed Honeyeater's nest, the egg being plainly visible from the 

 ground. 



The fact that the Cuckoo, after laying its egg, canies it in its mouth 

 till deposited in the nest of a foster-bird, is now pra<:tically admitted. 

 Here is a proof: — The late Mr. H. A. Smith, of Batesford, near 

 Geelong, informed me that on one occasion he shot a Pallid Cuckoo, 

 and removed from the back of its throat or gape, an egg, which was 

 fractured bv the bird'.'! fall. Kvideiitlv the unfortunate bird had laid 

 the egg. and was in the act of conveying it to some suitable nest. 



It is probable that the Pallid Cuckoo lays its egg first upon the 

 ground, and possibly early in the morning, because that is tlie time 

 generally when these birds have been flushed from the ground. In 

 his daylight rambles, Mr. Shepherd has frequently distiu-bcd on the 

 ground a Cuckoo with su.spicious movements. 



