84 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



I quote from a copy of his printed remarks (dated 3rd January, 

 1895), which he has thoughtfully forwarded to me: — "On 

 Wednesday evening, 31st October, 1894, I was going out about 

 three miles from South Grafton into the bush, in the hope of 

 getting a few beetles, &c., but before I had gone two miles from 

 the town I was much attracted by a great noise made by a pair of 

 Koels, male and female, which were in an Apple-tree, Angophora, 

 sometimes called a Mahagony. On going up to the tree I saw 

 the female Koel sitting on a limb near the nest of the Oriole, 0. 

 viridis. I at once climbed the tree, and found the nest contained 

 three eggs of the latter bird, so I came down and sat in 

 the shade of a gum-tree and watched the female Koel. She first 

 called the male Koel, and both sat near the Oriole's nest. After 

 five minutes the male Koel flew away, and the female went on to 

 the Oriole's nest. I did not move from the spot where I was 

 sitting, so after fifteen minutes I got up and hit the tree, to 

 frighten the Koel off the Oriole's nest, but she would not go. I 

 felt certain she was laying. After a time I again hit the tree, and 

 off the female Koel flew, accompanied by the male Koel, who had 

 in the meantime returned. I was delighted at this, and once more 

 ascended the tree, and found the nest contained four eggs — three 

 of the Oriole and one of the Koel, Eudynamis cyanocephala. A 

 description of the latter I have already given." 



Mr. Jackson forwarded his rare find to the Australian Museum, 

 and Mr. North described it in the " Proceedings of the Linnsean 

 Society, New South Wales" (1895), concluding with the following 

 remark : — " It will be observed that the egg of Flinders' Cuckoo 

 is the same size (about) of those of the Green-backed Oriole, 

 although, as a rule, the eggs of Australian cuckoos are larger 

 than those of the birds in whose nests they are deposited. In 

 the choice of a foster parent for its young, Flinders' Cuckoo has, 

 however, exercised great discrimination in selecting a species 

 that, like itself, depends entirely on fruits and berries for its 

 subsistence during the spring and summer months." 



Probably the food of the Koel is not entirely frugivorous, 

 because Mr. Carl Lumholtz recorded that, at Gracemere 

 (Queensland), he observed four Wood-Swallows, Artamus 

 sordidus, feeding a young Koel, which he shot, at the same time 

 bringing down one of tlie Wood-Swallows. 



Mr. Ed. Cornwall, writing to me from Townsville (Queensland), 

 23rd November, 1896, reports : — 



" I have taken what I believe to be the egg of Flinders' 

 Cuckoo. I took it from the nest of the Helmeted Friar Bird ; 

 and as the cuckoos were very plentiful here, and were evidently 

 mating, also as the Friar Birds were seen chasing the cuckoos 

 away, I do not think there is much doubt about the identity 

 of the egg. 



