THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 145 



sparrow's nest, which contained likewise three legitimate eggs. 

 One November my son Archie observed a sparrow chasing a 

 cuckoo from the verandah of our house, where sparrows were 

 nesting. 



The Tree-Creeper (Climacteris), as a foster bird, is mentioned on 

 the evidence of the late Mr. Gilbert Bateman, a trapper, whose 

 suspicions were aroused by seeing a Bronze Cuckoo emerging 

 from a hole in a tree. An examination proved that the cuckoo 

 had deposited its egg among the rich red-coloured clutch of the 

 Tree- Creeper. The nest was not far down, and could be seen from 

 the entrance of the hole. 



While in the " Big Scrub," New South Wales, in several 

 instances I abstracted the eggs of this Bronze Cuckoo from the 

 bulky nest of the Yellow-throated Scrub-Tit, Sericornis citreo- 

 gularis, together with the larger eggs of the rightful owner. Only 

 once did I take the strange egg in the nest of the other Scrub- 

 Tit, the Large-billed, or 8. magnirostris, also so common in this 

 locality, as Mr. Lau did in the South Queensland scrubs. 



As these nests are similarly constructed, and frequently near 

 each other, I thought it remarkable that the cuckoo should select 

 one in preference to the other. 



In the West the Bronze Cuckoo eggs I there found were in 

 nests with clutches of the Western Tit, Acanthiza apicalis. I 

 also noticed these birds feeding a young cuckoo. 



While in a forest near Cape Leeuwin during October, 1889, 

 I made the following curious entry in my field book : — 



"Four or five Bronze Cuckoos in shining coats making a great 

 stir in a low tree, chasing each other and all the while making 

 melancholy, tremulous, whistling noises. Anxious to ascertain 

 the cause of the disturbance, I approached too close to the little 

 company, which immediately departed to another tree." 



Occasionally two Bronze Cuckoos' eggs were deposited in the 

 same nest. I find that under date 2nd November, 1886, I took 

 a pair of bronzy coloured eggs from a nest of the Yellow-tailed 

 Tit (Geobasileus), near Doncaster, Victoria. Mr. C. French, jun., 

 recorded in the Victorian Naturalist a similar instance that 

 came under his observation during the season 1889. 



Other species of cuckoos' eggs are occasionally found in the 

 same bird's nest with that of the Bronze Cuckoo, as Mr. Brent's 

 note quoted under the Fantailed Cuckoo, and the following 

 remarks by Dr. Ramsay, prove. 



" From a nest of Acanthiza nana," Dr. Ramsay says, " I 

 remember taking, in the year 1855, no less than six eggs. 

 Among them were three Bronze Cuckoos' — two of Chalcites 

 playosus and one of C. basalts. In November last (1864) we 

 took another nest of the same species, containing one of each 

 variety. In this instance one of the eggs of C. plagosus was 



