NESTS A.VD EGGS OE AUSTKALIAN BIRDS. 



569 



Total length, about 10 inches. The Fan-tailed Cuckoo, like the Pallid 

 Cuckoo, enjoys a range over Australia and Tasmania, arriving at and 

 departing from its southern limits about the same time the latter bird 

 does. However, a few stragglers of the Fan-tailed species remain to 

 winter in Victoria, as some of niv notes attest. Individuals have also 

 been obsened in Tasmania during winter. 



From about the end of September to the beginning of December 

 includes the laying season of the Fan-tailed Cuckoo.* The eggs are 

 almost invariably deposited in domed or covered-in nests of certain 

 insectivorous birds. But there are a few notable exceptions (four 

 instances) of open nests having been selected. 



Here follows a list of foster-parents of the Fan-tailed Cuckoo known 

 up to the present, namely: — 



Vernacular Name. 



Rock Warbler . . 



Brown-rumped Tit 



Brown 



Striated ,, 



Little 



(?) Buli-rumped ,, 



Scrub-Tit 



Long-tailed Wren 



Blue 



Variegated ,, 



Brown Scrub Wren . . 



White-browed Scrub Wren . 



Large-billed Scrub Wren 



Little Field Wren 



White-eared Honeyeater 



Blacli -capped ,, 



Wood Swallow. 

 Dusky Robin . 



Scientific Name- 



Origma rubricata . . 



Acanthiza diemenensis 



\. pusilla 



A. lineata 



A. nana 



A. reguloides 



Acanthornis magna 



Malurus gouldi 



M. cyaneus . . 



M. lamberti 



Sericornis humilib 



S. frontalis . . 



S. n)agnirostris 



Chthonicola sagittata 



Ptilotis leucotis 



Melithreptus melanocepha- 



lus 

 Artamus sordidus . . 

 Petroeca vittata 



Bv Whom First 



Recorded or 



Reported. 



A. J. North 

 Rev. H. T. Hull 

 Dr. E. P. Ramsay 



A E. Brent 



A. J. C. 



Dr E P. Ramsay 



A. J. C." 



T Brittlebank 



A J C. 



Dr. E P. Ramsay 



C. French, jun. 



A. 



E. Brent 

 ,, (Nov., '96) 



We are indebted to Dr. Ramsay for much original information in 

 reference to our Cuckoos. He patiently watched their eggs in various 

 nests, thus enabling him to identify the species when hatched. The 

 result of his labours, together with coloured plates of four of the most 

 famihar eggs, may be found embodied in the " Proceedings of the Zoo- 

 logical Society" (London), 1865 and 1869, from whicli I quote at 

 length : — 



" Among those species, the nests of wliich are favoured by visits 

 from this 'parasite,' is Acanthiza iJuiiiUa, from a nest of which, in 

 September, 1863, we took no less than four eggs — two laid by the 

 rightful owner of the nest, and the other two by Cuckoos. One of 

 these was a very fine specimen of Chalcites hasiJis, f the other an egg 

 of the present species, Cacomantis flaheUiforniis. The entrance to this 

 nest was greatly enlarged, being in width fully two inches, and the hood 

 which usually conceals the entrance (which is near the top of the nest, 



' It is stated that an egg of this Cuckoo has been taken as early as the first 

 week in August, from a Brown Tit's nest, in the vicinity of Sydney, 

 t Probably //ligosifs is intended. — A. J. C. 



