Vol. VI. 

 1907 



1 Campbell, Observations on the Rearing of a Cvtckoo. 1 23 



On the next evening, or 24 hours after the series of ejectments 

 above referred to, the Cuckoo absolutely refused any further 

 exhibition, but as the nestling Scrub-Wren was now dead this 

 may have been the reason. A very significant thing also 

 occurred about this time — a f'an-tailed Cuckoo, which had not 

 been heard about the grounds for about a month, began trilling 

 not 50 yards from the nest. It is not unreasonable to suppose 

 that this was the parent bird returning to see how its offspring 

 was faring. Unfortunately the approach of a heavy rain-storm 

 prevented my following this matter further. Soaking rain fell 

 all through the night, and when in four days' time I visited the 

 scene, having been in the interval out of town, I found the nest 

 empty. The black gnome which had so recently destroyed its 

 fellow-nestling was itself overtaken by fate. Whether it had 

 wriggled out of a damp nest to perish on still damper ground, 

 or whether vengeance in the shape of a wandering house cat 

 overtook it, I know not. There was not a trace of the Cuckoo. 



Deductions. — From the foregoing observations it seems reason- 

 able to suppose : — 



{a.) That a pair of Cuckoos often return to the scene of last 

 year's operations and place their Qgg or eggs, where the 

 opportunity still remains, in the nest or nests of birds so used 

 before. This is upheld somewhat by my note book, which 

 records that a certain pair of Rose-breasted Robins {Petnvca 

 rosea), or at least a pair found in a certain part of a gully in 

 the Dandenong Ranges, reared a Square-tailed Cuckoo {C. 

 vai'iolosiis) two years running. 



(^.) That the parent Cuckoos exercise a supervision of the 

 nest where their ^^^ is placed. This is corroborated by Mr. G. 

 E. Shepherd, Somerville, who states that he knows a certain 

 pair of Scarlet-breasted Robins {P. Icggii) that regularly act as 

 the foster-parents of Cacoinantis variolosus. He has more 

 than once taken the nest of the Robin, containing, beside the 

 proper eggs, an &g^ of the Square-tailed Cuckoo, and within a 

 few weeks another nest and eggs of the same Robins, containing 

 another Cuckoo's ^^^, which by its similar shape and markings 

 betrayed its parentage to be the same as that of the first &gg. 



(c.) That a Cuckoo seeks as a foster-parent for its egg a bird 

 whose food is of the required insectivorous nature, and whose 

 eggs are very like its own in size and appearance. To the 

 last statement there is an exception in the Bronze-Cuckoo 

 {Chalcococcyx plagosus) whose bronze-coloured egg is unlike any 

 other Australian bird's &^^. But the likeness of all other 

 Cuckoos' eggs to those of the foster-parents is well known. The 

 likeness is truly remarkable in some instances — e.g., the above 

 observations ; and the likeness, further, is known to vary in the 

 case of the Narrow-billed Bronze-Cuckoo {C. basalts) to suit the 



