102 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



" Now, having compared the greatly enlarged entrances 

 of those nests from which we have taken cuckoos' eggs with the 

 entrances of those which did not contain the egg of a cuckoo, 

 and which we took as soon as the bird had laid its full number 

 of eggs for a sitting, I cannot but feel convinced more than ever 

 that the eggs of these parasites are laid in the nests and not 

 deposited in any other manner. 



"The average width of the entrances of the nests of A canthiza 

 lineata which have not been visited by a cuckoo is i inch, while 

 those which have contained cuckoos' eggs vary from 2 to 2^ 

 inches. In addition to the nests of Acanthiza pusitta we have 

 known this cuckoo (C. flabelliformis ) deposit its eggs in the nest 

 of A. reguloides (?) and Chthonicola sagittata." 



However valuable are Dr. Ramsay's other notes, I must in the 

 interests of research and truth combat his idea that the eggs of 

 cuckoos are laid in the nests and not deposited in any other 

 manner. How can the Fantailed Cuckoo, a bird about 9 inches 

 long, including a tail 5 inches, enter the small covered or dome- 

 shaped nest of, say, a Tit, Acanthiza, the longest exterior diameter 

 of which is only 4^ inches ? The side entrance, that hardly 

 admits of one's finger, may be enlarged by the cuckoo thrusting 

 its head in. 



In my published remarks, read before the Field Naturalists' 

 Club of Victoria, 1883, on our Cuckoos, I ventured the opinion 

 that our cuckoos (particularizing four species), after laying their 

 eggs somewhere, convey them in their bills to the nest of the 

 chosen foster parent. Since then I noticed an interesting article 

 on " The Architectural Tastes of Birds," by M. Oustalet, of 

 France, in which is stated :— 



" The cuckoo watches the moment when the mother quits the 

 nest, then laying its egg, seizes it by its mandibles, passes it into 

 the throat with the agility of a conjuror, and flies to deposit it 

 delicately in the stranger's nest." 



We also have the statement of another eminent ornithologist, 

 Dr. Sharpe, of the British Museum, who says : — 



" The fact of the cuckoo carrying her egg in her bill to deposit 

 it in the nest of her victim is now generally admitted." 



If such be possible with the European cuckoo, why not with our 

 Australian species also ? The following note received from Mr. 

 Wra. P. Best, Branxholme, Victoria, is, I think, conclusive evidence 

 on the subject as far as this species is concerned : — 



" In the season of 1888 I shot a Fantailed Cuckoo. It was 

 almost the first bird I had seen or heard in the season. On dis- 

 section it proved a specially interesting specimen, as in its ovary 

 I found a nearly perfect egg, and in its gizzard another egg, which, 

 though much broken, was evidently an egg of the same species, 

 probably of the same bird. The season was a late one, and the 



