THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 83 



Mr. Boyd has forwarded two spirit specimens of the cuckoos 

 frequenting the vicinity of where these bronze-coloured eggs were 

 deposited. One is the adult male of C. malayanus, the other a 

 young male of Cacomanlis castaneiventris. Now, judging from 

 analogy, one would reasonably expect to find the egg of the latter 

 species of the same type as C. Jiabellijormis and C. insperatus 

 (varlolosus), and I have little hesitation in provisionally refer- 

 ring the cuckoos' eggs found in the nests of the Gertjgone magni- 

 rostris as belonging to C. inalayanus until Mr. Boyd has an 

 opportunity of watching one of those cuckoos' eggs hatched by 

 the foster parent, and conclusively prove to which species the 

 young bird belongs." 



Mr. Dudley Le Souef and Mr. VV. B. Barnard have found 

 similar eggs in the nests of the Large-billed Fly-eater, or Gerygone 

 magnirostris, in the Bloomfield River scrubs. The former 

 collector also reports the Masked Fly-eater, G. j^ersonata, a foster 

 parent of the same cuckoo, whilst Mr. R. Hislop has observed 

 the strange egg in the nest of the Lovely Wren, Malurus amabilis. 

 In nearly every instance there were two eggs of the foster parent 

 in the nest with the cuckoo's egg. 



In the extreme north, at Cape Yorke, Mr. Harry Barnard found 

 these eggs in the nests of Masked Fly-eaters towards the end of 

 November, 1896 ; but, as I have previously mentioned, the 

 parasitical eggs are just as likely to be those of C. poecilurus as 

 C. malayanus. For it must be remembered that Gould's type of 

 G. russata {poecilurus) came from Cape York. 



KOEL (Eudynamis cyanocephala). 



This fine cuckoo, or Koel, the male specially splendid for his 

 glossy greenish-black coat, is found chiefly in Northern and 

 Eastern Australia. It visits as far south as New South Wales, 

 where it arrives in September, departing again about March. 



I have enjoyed hearing its loud whistling call notes, which 

 become somewhat monotonous when kept up almost incessantly 

 both day and night during the breeding season. 



Koels' eggs are rare items in collections. As stated in the 

 " Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales," vol. 

 ii., 2nd series, p. 554 (1887), Mr. George Masters first obtained 

 an egg of the Koel at Gayn(iah, Queensland, on the 25th Novem- 

 ber, 1870. He shot at and wounded a female, and while pursuing 

 her she dropped an egg. A photograph of this egg, sent by Dr. 

 George Bennett, was exhibited at the meeting of the Zoological 

 Society of London, June, 1873. Dimensions given of the egg 

 are 1.4 x 1.05 inches. 



However, the first normal egg was discovered, under highly 

 interesting circumstances, by Mr. S. W. Jackson, of South Grafton. 



