THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 81 



New Zealand, as a third ; " while the British Museum Cata- 

 logue shows that C. lucidus is the New Zealand race of C 

 plagosus, with a range of habitat down Eastern Australia. 



A specimen of G. lucidus, or the Broad-billed Bronze-Cuckoo, 

 taken in Tasmania, and exhibited in the Australian Museum, 

 Sydney, has a more bronzy-brown appearance than the other two 

 varieties, but like C. basalts has chestnut markings on the tail 

 feathers. However, this third southern variety of Bronze-Cuckoo 

 needs inquiring into by field workers, and may possibly lay in 

 some Australian birds' nests. 



I give a few remarks on the Broad-billed Bronze-Cuckoo in its 

 New Zealand habitat, where it is called the Shining Cuckoo. 

 According to Sir Walter BuUer, it arrives in the north part of that 

 country during September. At VVellington it was observed, from 

 a record kept for ten years, to arrive between 5th and loth 

 October. The cuckoos commence to depart about the middle of 

 January, and most are gone by the end of that month. Other 

 observers have noticed the birds in February and March. 



Sir Walter Buller proceeds to remark : — " Its cry is a remark- 

 able one, as the bird appears to be endowed with a peculiar kind 

 of ventriloquism. It consists of eight or ten long silvery notes 

 quickly repeated. The first of these appears to come from a 

 considerable distance ; each successive one brings the voice 

 nearer, till it issues from the spot where the performer is actually 

 perched, perhaps only a few yards off. It generally winds up 

 with a confused strain of joyous notes, accompanied by a stretching 

 and quivering of the wings, expressive, it would seem, of the 

 highest ecstasy. The cry of the young birds is easily distin- 

 guished, being very weak and plaintive." . . . . " As it is 

 usual to find the cuckoo's egg associated with those of the Grey 

 Warbler, we may reasonably infer that the visitor simply deposits 

 its egg for incubation without displacing the existing ones. But 

 the young cuckoo is generally found to be the sole tenant of the 

 nest; and the following circumstance, related to me by the Rev. 

 R. Taylor, sufiiciently proves that the intruder ejects the rightful 

 occupants and takes entire possession. He discovered the nest 

 of a Grey Warbler in his garden shrubbery containing several 

 eggs, and among them a larger one, which he correctly assigned 

 to the Shining Cuckoo. In due time the eggs were hatched ; but 

 after the lapse of a day or two the young cuckoo was the sole 

 tenant of the nest, and the dead bodies of the others were found 

 lying on the ground below. At length the usurper left the nest, 

 and for many days after both of the foster parents were inces- 

 santly on the wing, from morning till night, catering for the 

 inordinate appetite of their charge, whose constant piping cry 

 served only to stimulate their activity." 



