"^"IgoT'] Dove, The White-eye. 55 



In November, at Table Cape, a White-eye sang sweetly in an 

 apple tree close to my cottage ; the song, though sweet, is 

 somewhat inward, a kind of meditation in solitude, so that one 

 must be fairly close to the bird in order to hear it. The same 

 singer was heard in a hazel bush close to the house on the 

 evening of 24th December, a little before sunset. Some of the 

 notes had the wild liquid sweetness of those of the Song-Thrush 

 (on a very reduced scale, of course) ; others appeared like an 

 imitation of the crescendo series uttered by the Pallid Cuckoo 

 [Ctiailus pallidas). This was altogether a very remarkable 

 performance, and appeared to indicate hitherto unsuspected 

 powers of vocal mimicry in this interesting little bird. 



It is a moot point whether or not Zosterops is a true native of 

 New Zealand. Sir Walter Buller contended that it was an 

 inhabitant of the South Island until 1856, when it crossed 

 Cook Strait and spread over the North Island also ; other 

 ornithologists believe that it crossed the Tasman Sea from 

 Australia shortly before that time, and had not previously been 

 found in either island. If so, this was an extraordinary flight 

 for such a tiny bird, but perhaps not much more remarkable 

 than that of the Shining Cuckoo {CJialcococcyx lucidus, Gm.), 

 which crosses every year that great stretch of troubled water in 

 order to deposit its eggs in the snug canopied nest of the Grey 

 Warbler. 



The Origin and Development of Parasitical Habits in 



the Cuculidae. 



By C. L. Barrett, Melbourne. 



For nearly two thousand years certain remarkable habits of the 

 family Cuculidce have exercised the minds of naturalists and 

 philosophers. The origin of these habits has remained hidden 

 behind an impenetrable veil of mystery, which is only now being 

 slowly and patiently lifted by means of the observations and 

 researches of a number of ornithologists in different parts of the 

 world. The first actual record which has come to us out of the 

 past of the unusual ways of these strange birds is contained in 

 a scientific treatise written by one Aelian, a Latin author, who 

 flourished during the second century. In this ancient mono- 

 graph it is stated that the Cuckoo always lays her eggs in the 

 nests of other birds, being too indolent to undertake the care of 

 her own offspring. 



We do not find many other important references to the 

 Cuckoo until the time of Gilbert White, the famous old naturalist- 

 parson of Selborne, whose charming series of letters on the wild 

 life of his Hampshire home, known to us as "The Natural 



