82 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



The following interesting data respecting the early history of 

 the Broad-billed Bronze-Cuckoo was furnished to Sir Walter 

 Buller by a correspondent, Mr. W. VV. Smith, of Oamaru. On the 

 7th October a Warbler's (Gerygone) nest was found containing 

 four eggs and one of the cuckoo. 21st. — The batch still 

 unhatched. 24th. — Two young were hatched ; one egg upon the 

 ground contained chick, cold and dead. 25th. — Three young in 

 nest. 26th. — Cuckoo's egg hatched. 30th. — One dead chick 

 found on the ground ; young cuckoo growing rapidly, nearly 

 large enough to fill the nest itself. 2nd November. — One of the 

 young Warblers dead in the nest. 6th. — Young cuckoo lying 

 with its head on the opening of nest, having taken full possession, 

 its remaining companion being underneath it, having apparently 

 died from starvation. 8th. — Young cuckoo almost ready to leave 

 its cradle. 15th. — Came out of the nest. 



The following have been recorded as foster parents of the 

 Broad-billed or Shining Cuckoo in New Zealand, namely : — 

 Grey Warbler, Gerygone flavivenlris — the usual victim, Gerygone 

 albofrontata ; South Island Tomtit, Myiomoira macrocephala ; 

 Bell-bird or Korimako, Anthomis melanura ; White-eye, Zosterops 

 ccerulescens ; and the introduced House Sparrow. 



The late Mr. T. H. Potts, regarding his observations of the 

 cuckoo, has mentioned sixteen instances of its eggs being found 

 in the nests of Warblers between the 28th October and 6th 

 January — the limits probably of the laying season of the cuckoo 

 in New Zealand. 



Little Bronze-Cuckoo (C malayanus). 



Of our beautiful Bronze Cuckoos little appears to be known of 

 the smallest species, which frequents the northern parts of Aus- 

 tralia. 



In a measure I agree with Mr. North that the cuckoos' eggs 

 found in certain northern birds' nests may be those of the C 

 malayanas, but there is nothing to prove that they are not really 

 the eggs of C poecilui-us, another northern variety of the Bronze- 

 Cuckoos. 



Dr. Ramsay's original description in the " Proceedings of the 

 Zoological Society" (1875) '^ ^^'"y iiieagre, merely stating that a 

 bronze-coloured egg, believed to be that of C. minutlllus (inalay- 

 anus), was obtained from a species of Gerygone's nest. 



Nearly 20 years afterwards Mr. North writes: — "For some 

 years past Mr. Boyd (Herbert River, Q.) has found a dark 

 bronze-coloured egg of a cuckoo in the nest of Gerygone magni- 

 rostris, varying consitierably from the well-known egg of C. 

 plagosus, and which I referred to when describing the nest and 

 eggs of G. magnirostris in the Ibis last year (1893). Recently 



