THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 61 



The fact that the cuckoo, after laying its egg, carries it in its 

 mouth till deposited in the nest of a foster-bird, is now generally 

 admitted. Here is a proof: — The late Mr. H. A. Smith, of 

 Batesford, near Geelong, informed me that on one occasion he 

 shot a Pallid Cuckoo, and removed from the back of its throat or 

 gape an egg, which was fractured by the bird's fall. Evidently 

 the unfortunate bird had laid the egg, and was in the act of 

 conveying it to some suitable nest. 



It is probable that the Pallid Cuckoo lays its egg first upon the 

 ground, and possibly early in the morning, because that is the 

 time generally when these birds have been flushed from the ground. 

 In his daylight rambles Mr. Shepherd has frequently disturbed on 

 the ground a cuckoo with suspicious movements. 



Mr. W. A. Milligan furnished me with the somewhat remarkable 

 note that in Gippsland he had observed an adult Pallid Cuckoo 

 feeding a young bird of its own kind. Mr. Milligan noticed no 

 other birds about at the time. Miss Ada Fletcher, Tasmania, 

 writing to the Australasian, 30th May, 1896, states : — " I myself 

 have seen a full-grown Pallid Cuckoo feeding a young one of the 

 same species. The young one, when flushed, flew feebly, and I 

 judged it had only recently left the foster-parents' nest." These 

 notes suggest interesting questions. Do cuckoos sometimes assist 

 the foster-parents in feeding the young, or had these particular 

 youngsters lost their foster-parents ? 



I am inclined to believe that many birds, by instinct, feed 

 young cuckoos, whether they be the rightful foster-parents or not. 

 Only last season Master B. E. Bardwell watched a young cuckoo, 

 probably a Pallid or else a Fantailed, being fed by a Scarlet 

 Robin, P. teggii, and then, immediately, by a Spine-billed 

 Honey-eater. The little Honey-eater appeared not only to put 

 its long bill, but head also, well into the mouth of the youthful 

 cuckoo. It is hardly likely that the Spinebill was trying to 

 retrieve for itself the bait placed by the robin in the throat of 

 the cuckoo. 



With reference to the two last statements, namely, that young 

 cuckoos are sometimes fed by old cuckoos, as well as by birds 

 other than the proper foster-parents, we have further proof in the 

 published remarks of Dr. Ramsay in New South Wales. 



Following the same plan as in the case of the Bronze Cuckoos, 

 the Messrs. Ramsay succeeded in procuring two young Pallid 

 Cuckoos from eggs which they (Ramsays) had left in the nest of 

 the Yellow-tufted Honey-eater, P. aitricomis, and thus first estab 

 lished the parentage of the strange eggs. 



The cuckoo's egg is hatched about the twelfth or fourteenth 

 day, when the young cuckoo — a little, fat, helpless creature — is 

 scarcely larger than its foster brethren. However, growing 

 rapidly, it soon fills up the greater part of the nest, and its un- 



