146 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



embedded below the lining of the nest, and had evidently been 

 laid just before the nest was completed, as is not infrequently 

 the case. The other egg, which was a specimen of C. basalis, 

 my brother Percy placed in a nest of Acanthiza lineata, which 

 he had found on the previous day, and left for such an occasion. 

 On returning to it about a week afterwards we found the young 

 cuckoo had been hatched. After a lapse of seven days the 

 bronze feathers were just beginning to appear, and in about a 

 week or ten days more the young bird was able to fly, the 

 bronze on the wings, head, and back now showing plainly. 



" Now, as the apertures of the nests of the Acanthiza are 

 exceedingly small, a question naturally arises whether the Bronze 

 Cuckoo lays its eggs in the nest or places them there by some 

 other means. 



" To this I can only answer that the apertures of those nests 

 which have contained cuckoos' eggs are nearly twice as wide as 

 the openings of those nests which we have taken before the 

 cuckoo's egg has been deposited in them. This is more easily 

 noticed in the nest of A. lineata, of which the aperture is very 

 small and nearly covered over with a hood." 



NOTES ON SCOLECOBROTUS WESTWOODII, Hope. 



This is a longicorn beetle, for which a collector may, as in my 

 case, look almost in vain for years, for in all my experience I 

 have taken but a single specimen in the open, and yet, when its 

 habitat becomes known, it is fairly common. Why it is so rarely 

 taken is rather difficult to explain. My surmise is that the 

 beetle, when it emerges, remains on the upper branches, and 

 sooner or later becomes food for birds. This would also account 

 for neither the dead beetle or its remains being found round the 

 butts of the trees. In colour it is of a light brownish-grey, and 

 in length from 12 to 16 lines. It breeds mostly in the Yellow 

 Box, Eucalyptus melliodora, and if the branches blown down by 

 the strong equinoctial gales of August or September be examined, 

 it will be noticed that the lower ends present the appearance 

 of having been eaten away, with the exception of a very small 

 portion, thus rendering them easily liable to be broken or blown 

 off. This eating away is done by the poweiful mandibles of the 

 larvae or grub of the beetle, but for what exact purpose I cannot 

 say. The grub, which when extended averages one and a 

 half to two inches in length, and is of a dirty white or slaty 

 colour, enters the branch at nearly its thinnest portion, and then 

 tunnels its way down two, three, four, and sometimes even a 

 greater number of feet, when for a reason of its own it eats away 

 round the branch until only a small support is left, as mentioned 



