76 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



observed a cuckoo's egg in this tit's nest under the inner lining. 

 In December I took from the male chamber of a Yellow- 

 tailed Tit's nest a fresh egg of the cuckoo, while below in 

 the incubating chamber were three young. The upper room 

 was also domed, with side entrance, and I fear the cuckoo 

 was as much deceived with this parlour as the proverbial 

 fly was with another. A third peculiar case showed a 

 cuckoo's egg upon the ledge of the nest of the White-fronted 

 Chat, Ephthianura albifrons (18/12/95), while within were two 

 quite naked young and one egg. Did the Chat push this egg on 

 to the ledge ? The last observation, which I believe to be still 

 unwritten, was recently made at Swan Hill by three of my friends. 

 I identified for them two eggs of this species in the same nest of 

 Xerophila leucopsis, along with five eggs of the latter (27/10/97). 



Dr. Rey, in Nature, remarks that such an example is a sign of 

 the colonizing instinct, and upon his theory these eggs, being 

 differently marked and with various colour density, they belong to 

 different females. 



In three birds obtained in three months of 1897 I noticed 

 the following differences : — (a) March. — A large proportion of 

 brown in the plumage. Presumably this is a very young bird. 

 (6) August. — The wing coverts tipped with brown have dis- 

 appeared, and the barred markings of the breast are dentate, 

 nearly as {a), (c) September. — The dentate markings are now 

 transverse parallels, and are not so heavy as in {a) and (6). It 

 seems to me the stage (6) is a one-year-old, while (c) is matured 

 or two years old. 



The Psittaci, so named by Ritgen in 1826, and generally 

 adopted, has its greatest diversity of types in the Australian 

 region, but the largest numerical value in the neo-tropical. 

 Excluding the thorough globe-trotters, parrots are reckoned as 

 great an order of vagrants as any other of the class, following as 

 they do the flowering of the eucalypts in the low to higher 

 latitudes. Of the 500 odd known species, 63 are Australian. 

 Ten of the latter have been observed by myself in the Box Hill 

 district. The following list will give an idea of the outline 

 classification of the order, the first three being families {idcH 

 termination), the last two sub-families {ince termination). Except- 

 ing the Fig Parrakeets, which are Queensland birds, each has 

 a representative within twenty miles of Melbourne, and I doubt 

 not you are familiar with all : — i. Cacatuidce — Black Cockatoos, 

 7 sp. ; White to Rose-tinted Cockatoos, 7 sp. ; Grey Cockatoo, i 

 sp. 2. Loriidce (Brush-tongued Parrots), 7 sp. ; ex.. Musky 

 Parrakeet. 3. Cyclopsittacidce (Fig Parrakeets), 2 sp. ; habitat 

 in Queensland. 4. Pa/aeonii^/mio; (" merry-thought " furcula pre- 

 sent), 6 sp. ; ex., King I>ory. 5. Flatycercioioi (" merry-thought " 

 bone absent), 33 sp. of broad tails ; ex., Rose Hill Parrot, 



