A'ESTS A.VD EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 3(37 



Mr. W. A. MiUigan fm-nished me with the somewhat remarkable 

 note, that m Gippsland he had observed an adult Palhd Cuckoo feeding 

 a young bii'd of its own kind. Mr. MiUigan noticed no other birds 

 about at the time. Miss Ada Fletcher, Tasmania, writing to The 

 Awtra/iisiaii, 30th May, 1896, states: — "T myself have seen a full- 

 grown Pallid Cuckoo feechug a young one of the same species. The 

 young one, when flushed, flew feebly, and I judged it had only recently 

 left the foster-parents' nest.' These notes suggest interesting questions. 

 Do Cuckoos sometimes assist the foster-parents in feeding the yoiuigl 

 or had these particular yoimgsters lost their foster-parents • 



I am iuchued to believe that many birds, by instinct, feed young 

 Cuckoos, whether they be the rightfid foster-parents or not. Only 

 last season Master B. E. Bardwell watclied a young Cuckoo, probably 

 a Palhd or else a Fan-tailed, being fed bj' a Scarlet Robin (P. leggii) 

 and then, immediately, by a Spine-billed Honeyeater. Tlie Uttle 

 Honeyeater appeared not only to put its long bill, but head also, well 

 into the mouth of the youthful Cuckoo. It is hardlj' hkely that the 

 Spinebill was trying to retrieve for itself the bait placed by the Robin 

 in the throat of the Cuckoo. 



With reference to the two last statements, namely, that young 

 Cuckoos are sometimes fed by old Cuckoos, as well as by birds other 

 than the proper foster-parents, we have further proof in the pubUshed 

 remarks of Dr. Ramsay, in New South Wales. 



Following the same plan as in the case of the Bronze Cuckoos, the 

 Messrs. Ramsay succeeded in procuring two young Pallid Cuckoos 

 from eggs which they (Ramsays) had left in the nest of the Yellow- 

 tufted Honeyeater (P. auricomisj, and thus first estabhshed the 

 parentage of the strange eggs. 



The Cuckoo's egg is hatched about the twelfth or foiu-teenth day, 

 when the young Cuckoo — a httle, fat, helpless creature — is scarcely 

 larger than its foster bretlii-en. However, gi-owing rapidly, it soon 

 fills up the greater part of the nest, and its unfortunate companions, 

 either smothered by its weight or starved to death through its greedi- 

 ness, are thrown out by their parents. 



Dr. Ramsay proceeds to say : — 



" On the 30th October last (1864), we found two unliappy yoimg 

 birds, which had been hatched in company with a Cuckoo in a nest of 

 Pti/iiiit. auricomis, tossed out and lying upon the ground just imder 

 the nest. These were, of com-se, quite dead, and appeared to have 

 been about three or four days old. 



" Dimng the months of October and November, it is no uncommon 

 sight to see the smaller birds feeding the young of Cuckoos. Even 

 the little Acantliizae, which I beheve are never the foster-parents, at 

 least of the Pallid Cuckoo, join in supplving the wants which are easilv 

 made knowii by their continued peevish cry, stopping only when being 

 fed, or when their appetites are appca.sed 



" While walking towards home through a half-cleared paddock, I 

 was not a httle sui-prised, upon hearing the cries of a young Cuckoo, 

 to see a pair of adult birds of the same species, C. jmUidus, flying after 

 it, settUng beside it, and apparently paying it gi-eat attention. Several 



