iV^Srs AND hOGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



5^3 



Vkrnaculak Namk. 



Grass Warbler . . 

 Yellow-throated Scrub Wren 

 Large-billed ,, 



White-throated Fly Eater . . 

 Brown ,, 



Ked-browed Finch 

 Brown Tree Creeper . . 

 'Short-billed Tree Tit 

 •Emu Wreu . . 

 Scarlet-breasted Kobin 

 White-fronted 13ush Chat 

 Orange-winged Tree Runner 

 Yellow-faced Honeyeater 

 Fulvous-fronted 

 Long-billed 

 Chestnut-rumped Tit 

 Red-capped Robin 



Scientific Name. 



Cisticola exilis 

 Sericornis citreogularis 

 S. magnirostris 

 Gerygone albigularis . . 

 G. tusca 



Aigintha temporalis . . 

 Climacteris scandens 

 Sraicrornis brevirostns 

 Stipiturus malachurus 

 Petrceca leggii . . 

 Ephthianura albifrons 

 Sittella chrysoptera . . 

 Ptilotis chrysops 

 Glycyphila fulvifrons 

 Meliornis longirostns 

 Acanthiza uropygiahs 

 Petroeca goodenovi . . 



By whom First 



Kecokded or 



Rei'okieu. 



Hall-Kearlland 



. A J. C. 



. H. Lau 



. H. Barnard 



. A. J.C. 



. A. J. North 

 G. Bateman 

 E. P. Kamsay 



: A.j.c'j 



J. Sommers 

 G. E. Shepherd 

 , R. Hall 

 J. W. Mellor 

 D. Le Souef 

 R. Hall 



To the foregoing list may be added that troublesome introduction, 

 the House Sparrow, an apparently deserted nest having been taken 

 near Warruambool, which contained an addled egg of the Bronze 

 Cuckoo — date Christmas, 1893. One November, my son Archie 

 observed a Sparrow chasing a Cuckoo from the verandah of oiu' house, 

 where Sparrows were nesting. The strange egg has also been seen in 

 the nest of the Goldfinch (iutroduced). 



The Tree Creeper (U/imacterisJ, as a foster-bird, is mentioned on 

 the evidence of the late Mr. Giltx:rt Bateman, a tra23per, whose sus- 

 picious were aroused by seeing a Bronze Cuckoo emerging from a hole 

 in a tree. An examination proved that the Cuckoo had dejjosited its 

 egg among the rich, led-coloured clutch of the Tree Creeper. The nest 

 was not far dowUj and could be seen from the entrance of the hole. 



Wlule ia the " Big Sciiib," New South Wales, in several instances 

 I abstracted the eggs of this Bronze Cuckoo from the bulky nest of the 

 Yellow-throated Sciaib Wreu ( Seriairiiis citrenijularia), together with 

 the larger eggs of the rightfid owner. Only once did I take, as Mr. Lau 

 did in the Soutli Queensland scrubs, the strange egg in the nest of the 

 other Sciiib Wren, the Large-billed {S. iiuuj it lros.tr iii), also so common 

 in this locahty. 



As these nests are similarly constnicted, and frequently near each 

 other, I thought it remarkable that the Cuckoo should select one in 

 preference to the other. 



Dr. Bennett, in his " Gatherings of a Natiu-alist in Australia," 

 mentions that a White-shafted Fantail ( Rhipidura albiscapa) was shot 

 at Ryde, near Sydney, in the act of feeding a solitary young " Bronze 

 Cuckoo," in its nest — but which species is not stated. 



In the west, the Bronze Cuckoo eggs I there foiuid were in nests 

 with clutches of the Western Tit (Acanthiza apicalis). I also noticed 

 these birds feeding a young Cuckoo. While in a forest near Cape 



* I have included these as foster birds under this species, although Dr. 

 Ramsay does not make it clear to which of the two Bronze Cuckoos they should 

 belong. Vide P.Z.S., 1865 and 1869. 



