168 THE USEFUL BIRDS 



PALLID CUCKOO 



(Semitone or Scale-bird), 



€ii cuius pallidus, Lath. 



Ku-ku'lus pal'id-us. 



Cuculus, a cuckoo ; pallidus, pale. 



CucuLTJS INORNATUS, Gould, " Birds of Australia," fol., vol. iv., pi. 85. 



Geographical Distribution. — The whole of Australia and Tasmania. 



Key to the Species. — General appearance grey; eyelash yellow; tail 

 barred with white and fan -shaped ; wing reaching beyond tail 

 coverts ; feet zygodactyl. 



Excluding the winter season, the CucuUdae are always to be 

 found in the southern portions of our continent, though even 

 during the cold weather sohtary birds may be seen, who have 

 not followed their migratory habit of seeking the warmer 

 northern regions. 



In early September the voices of two species may be heard, 

 distinctly rising above the universal chatter that heralds the 

 approach of spring. Of the 12 Australian Cuckoos, 6 annually 

 come to the south. 



Altogether some 180 species of Cuckoos are known to 

 science, divisible under the following three heads : — {a) True 

 Cuckoos (Cuculinse), (b) Lark-heeled Cuckoos (Centropodinse), 

 (c) Bush Cuckoos (Phoenicophoeinse). {a) is universal ; (b) is 

 tropical — example, the Spur-footed Cuckoo of Queensland ; 

 (c) is unrepresented in the Australian region. The largest of 

 our mainland Cuckoos {Ce7itropus fhasimius. Lath.) measures 

 24 inches in length, and is the only non-parasitic species, 

 while the smallest (Bronze Cuckoo) is 5 J inches, and, hke all 

 the others, is parasitic. 



Australian Cuckoos — or Cuckows, as Professor A. Newton 

 prefers to write it — do not announce their arrival as do their 



