60 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



Blackbird in the same park." I had heard previously of the 

 Greenfinch being a foster-parent, which is remarkable, seeing that 

 the finch is a seed-eater, or nearly so. However, although 

 the egg is deposited in the finch's nest, we have no evidence that 

 it rears the young cuckoo. 



Among Mr. J. T. Gillespie's cuckoo notes for 1893, a season 

 when these birds were plentiful, are the following relating to the 

 Pallid Cuckoo : — 



" 28th October, at Springvale. — Single egg of Pallid Cuckoo 

 in nest of Wood Swallow, Artamus sordidus. Saw birds 

 previously building their nest, which was afterwards apparently 

 deserted. 



" 9th November, at Dandenong Creek. — Nest of Lunulated 

 Honey-eater, Melithreptus lunulatus, containing 2 eggs and an 

 egg of Pallid Cuckoo. 



"nth November, at Springvale. — From Hooded Robin's, 

 Petrmca bicolor, nest (found building the previous week) took 

 egg of Pallid Cuckoo. 



" 25th November, at Springvale. — In White-plumed Honey- 

 eater's, Ptilotis penicilldta, 1 egg and an egg of Pallid Cuckoo. 



" 3rd December — Took Pallid's egg from nest of Greenfinch 

 (introduced bird). Finch afterwards laid 4 eggs." 



At a meeting of the Royal Society of Victoria, held November, 

 1894, I read the following note on the occurrence of the egg 

 of the Pallid Cuckoo in the nest of the Magpie Lark 

 (Grallina) : — 



" My friend, Master John Sommers, of Cheltenham, presented 

 me with a nest taken in the locality, on the 24th September, 1894, 

 containing a set of 5 eggs of the Grallina, together with an egg of 

 the Pallid Cuckoo, C. pallidus. This is the first instance, as far 

 as I am aware, of an egg of this cuckoo having been found in the 

 nest of a Grallina." 



In the cuckoo's egg, incubation was further advanced than in 

 the other eggs. 



Occasionally two cuckoos' eggs are found in the same nest. 

 Here is one of Mr. Charles French's, jun., notes thoughtfully sent 

 to me — '' White-throated Thickhead's, Pachycephalia gutturalis, 

 nest, containing 1 fresh egg of Thickhead and 2 fresh eggs of 

 Pallid Cuckoo. Locality, Dandenong Ranges. 9th September, 



l8 95 ' . " 



Usually it seems that the cuckoo's egg is the first deposited in 

 the nest, and, not unfrequently, before the completion of the nest, 

 as the finding of a Pallid Cuckoo's egg underneath the warm 

 lining of a Lunulated Honey-eater's nest attests. Once Mr. G. 

 E. Shepherd found an egg of the Pallid Cuckoo sticking through 

 the bottom of a White-plumed Honey-eater's nest, the egg being 

 plainly visible from the ground. 



