62 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



fortunate companions, either smothered by its weight or starved 

 to death through its greediness, are thrown out by their parents. 



Dr. Ramsay proceeds to say : — 



"On the 30th October last (1864) we found two unhappy 

 young birds, which had been hatched in company with a cuckoo 

 in a nest of Ptilotis auricomis, tossed out and lying upon the 

 ground just under the nest. These were, of course, quite dead, 

 and appeared to have been about three or four clays old. 



" During the months of October and November, it is no un- 

 common sight to see the smaller birds feeding the young of 

 cuckoos. Even the little Acanthizae, which I believe are never the 

 foster-parents, at least of the Pallid Cuckoo, join in supplying 

 the wants which are easily made known by their continued 

 peevish cry, stopping only when being fed, or when their appetites 

 are appeased. 



" While walking towards home through a half-cleared paddock, 

 I was not a little surprised, upon hearing the cries of a young 

 cuckoo, to see a pair of adult birds of the same species, C. 

 pallidas, flying after it, settling beside it, and apparently paying 

 it great attention. Several times they flew away, but returned to 

 it again, and, from their actions I feel convinced that they were 

 feeding it, although, much to my regret, I was unable to obtain a 

 view sufficiently close to make sure of the fact," 



I may mention, in reference to the throvving-out business, some 

 persons suppose that the cuckoo throws out an egg or eggs of the 

 ioster parent to make room for its own. This has not been 

 proved with regard to the Pallid Cuckoo- — indeed, it has bten 

 disproved by the fact that the cuckoo's egg is frequently deposited 

 first, or even before the nest is completed, and that full clutches 

 of the foster-bird's have been taken together with the cuckoo's 

 egg. On the other hand, it is probable that some of the foster- 

 birds throw out cuckoo's eggs. When taking a White-shouldered 

 Caterpillar-catcher's, Lalage tricolor, nest at Somerville with Mr. 

 Shepherd, we found a broken egg of the Pallid Cuckoo under- 

 neath upon the ground — circumstantial evidence, I think, that 

 the egg had been deposited by the cuckoo in the Caterpillar- 

 catcher's nest, and thrown overboard by the latter bird. There 

 is no record of any cuckoo's egg having actually been taken from 

 a Caterpillar-catcher's nest, but Mr. Shepherd has seen a 

 Caterpillar-catcher feeding a young Pallid Cuckoo. 



In concluding these brief and somewhat scattered observations 

 on the Pallid Cuckoo, I have to thank my many friends for their 

 field observations, especially Mr. G. E. Shepherd, who, fortunately, 

 has been so favourably situated that he has been enabled to 

 observe Pallid Cuckoos' eggs in no less than nineteen different 

 species of nests — a record which any field naturalist may well be 

 proud of. 



