THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 19 



In the P.L.S., N.S.W., 1888 (vol. iii., 2nd series, p. 421), Dr. 

 G. Hurst drew attention to and described a similar strange egg he 

 had found on the 22nd December, 1887, in a nest of the Blue 

 Wren, Maluriis ci/atieiis, and attributed to the Brush or Square- 

 tailed Cuckoo. At the same time he mentioned that a friend — 

 Mr. Waterhouse — had on three occasions taken similar eggs from 

 the nest of the White-shafted Fantail. In the " Records of the 

 Australian Museum " Mr. A. J. North states that Dr. Hurst had 

 again found other eggs in the nests of the White-shafted Fantail, 

 notably in the month of December, while another Sydney collec- 

 tor, Mr. S. W. Moore, M.L.C., also found the same species of 

 cuckoo's eggs in the nest of the Yellow-faced Honey-eater, P. 

 chri/sops. Mr. North proceeds to remark : — "All these cuckoos' 

 eggs were obtained within a radius of ten miles of Sydney, and it 

 is a matter of regret that the opportunity was not taken of placing 

 them in nests convenient for observation and hatching the young 

 out, as was done by Dr. Ramsay and his brothers, at Dobroyde, 

 with the eggs of C. pallidus, C. flahellijonnis, L. plagosus, and L. 

 hasalis, so as to conclusively determine to which species they 

 belong ; but there can be no doubt Dr. Hurst was right in ascrib- 

 ing the eggs obtained by him and his friends to C. insperatus 

 [i.e., variolas us), as it is the only other species of cuckoo found 

 near Sydney, the eggs of which we were, until then, unacquainted 

 with." 



However, Mr. Dudley Le Souef, with the assistance of his 

 friend Mr. R. Hislop, knocked the nail on the head by settling 

 the parentage of these strange eggs beyond doubt. During his 

 trip to the Cooktown district (Q.), on the 17th November, 1896, 

 he found one in the nest of the Dusky or Brown-backed Honey- 

 eater, (rl/jcijphlla mode.sia. Mr. Hislop afterwards found 

 another nest of the Honey-eater containing the cuckoo's egg, 

 which was " shepherded " till the young parasite was hatched 

 and just able to fly. The interesting youngster was sent (dead, 

 of course), to Mr. Le Souef, who in turn referred it to the Aus- 

 tralian Museum, the verdict being that it was the young of the 

 C. variolosus. 



When in New South Wales recently I had the pleasure of 

 examining some of these new eggs in the collection of Mr. S. W. 

 Moore, at Homebush ; in fact, he kindly presented me witii one, 

 together with the pair of White-shafted Fantail's taken from the 

 same nest. Mr. Moore found or was present at the finding of 

 the following nests containing eggs of the Square-tailed Cuckoo 

 at Westwood, 13 miles from Sydney : — Yellow-faced Honey- 

 eater, date 4/12/91 ; White-shafted Fantail (two nests), date 

 26/12/91 ; do., 9/12/93 ; do., 16/12/93. 



Further interesting finds were made in Victorian forests. 

 During October, 1897, Mr. G. E. Shepherd found the cuckoo's 

 egg with two eggs of the Scarlet-breasted Robin, and Mr. J. 



