n6 Thomson, The Wliite-f routed Chat at Home. [,5^ "oct 



Narrow-billed Bronze-Cuckoo [Chalcococcyx basalis). On one 

 occasion last season I came upon two nests on a hill, in adjacent 

 clumps of gorse, one of which contained a Cuckoo's egg and two 

 of the Chat's, while in the other was a well-grown Cuckoo nestUng, 

 probably of the same species. This youngster, when hungry 

 (and this is a chronic state with young Cuckoos), kept up the 

 monotonous whining cry which is so well known in the bush. 

 No matter how much food the two birds brought, or how long 

 they worked, he was always ready for more, and still more, which 

 disappeared with alarming rapidity down that cavernous yellow 

 throat. What an amount of insect-hfe must be devoured by 

 one young Cuckoo in a single day ! One of the accompanying 

 photographs shows this young Cuckoo in the nest, with an egg 

 of the foster-parent in the foreground. This egg had evidently 

 been ejected by the young Cuckoo. 



When nesting duties are over the White-fronted Chats associate 

 together in small flocks or family parties, which roam the open 

 paddocks in search of insect-hfe, of which they must in the year 

 destroy an incredible amount. Thus passes a year in the life of 

 one of our most useful birds — so familiar, yet so Uttlc known. 



New Species of Australian Birds Since the Time 

 of John Gould. 



By Gregory M. Mathews, F.R.S.E. 



The following is of interest as showing the advance in Austrahan 

 ornithology this century. From Gould's time to the end of 1899, 

 22 species had been added to the AustraUan list (see Austral Avian 

 Record, vol. iii., pp. 74-77) ■ 



The following species had been added to the Austrahan list 

 from Gould's time to the end of 1899 -.—Corvus cecilce (Mathews), 

 Sharpe, " Cat. Birds Brit. Mus.," vol. in., p. 38 (1877) ; Prionodiira 

 newtoniana (De Vis) (1883) ; Bowyerea boweri (Ramsay) (1885) ; 

 Orphryzone lorealis (De Vis), Sacramela keartlandi (North) (1895) ; 

 Lcucotreron alligator (Collctt)_, Petrophassa ruftpennis (Collett) 

 (1898) ; Oreoscopus gutturalis (De Vis) (_i89o). 



Of regular Austrahan visitors or sub-species of extra-limital 

 species we have : — Mattingleya griseiceps (Gray), Ramsay, Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. Lond., p. 604, as Eopsaltria inornata (1874) ; Lcpto- 

 phaethon lepturus (Daudin), Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., 

 vol. ii., p. 203 (1878) ; Stercorarius parasiticus (Linne), Campbell, 

 " Nests and Eggs Austrahan Birds," p. 65 (1883) ; Mrago gibberi- 

 frons (Miiller), Ramsay, " Tab. List Austral. Birds," p. 22 (1888) j 

 Lamprococcyx lucidns' (GmQXxn), Shelly, "Cat. Birds Brit. Mus.," 

 vol. xix., p. 296, Chlidonias leucoptera (Temminck), Saunders, ib., 

 vol. XXV., p. 10, Reinholdia reinholdia (Mathews), Salvin, ib., 

 p. 381, as Piiffinus gavia, Neonectris grisetis (Gmelin), Salvin, ib.' 

 Rhyacophilus glareola (Linne), Sharp, ib., vol. xxiv., p. 499 



