THE VICTORIAN IS'ATURALIST. l65 



surroundings ; it was also very eager to be fed, and whenever 

 the little Acanthiza returned with food, would immediately 

 flutter in her direction, and consequently get out of focus. 

 The photograph exhibited represents a whole morning's work 

 When ten days old the young cuckoo has the bronze-green 

 plumage of the back well developed, but no horizontal bars 

 across the breast. These appear later, and on the sixteenth 

 day are well marked, as shown in our photograph. The 

 foster parents were feeding the young bird mainly on the 

 greenish-coloured larvae of a geometer moth. The adult cuckoo 

 devours large numbers of the peculiar green larvae of the Cup 

 Moth (Pelora). Has this food any influence in determining the 

 colouration of the egg ? Pycraft, writing of the English Cuckoo, 

 mentions ("Story of Bird Life," page 164) " that the resemblance 

 between the egg of the cuckoo and that of the foster-parent 

 selected is attributed to the influence of the food during the 

 nesting period of each particular cuckoo," and goes on to state 

 " that the soundness of this conclusion has yet to be tested." 



It would be interesting to learn if the diet of the Narrow-billed 

 Bronze Cuckoo, C. basalis, corresponds in any way to that of the 

 Bronze Cuckoo. The Cup Moth (Pelora) has also another 

 enemy in the White- throated Tree-creeper, Clioiacteris lettcophcea. 

 This bird, whilst working up and around the trunks of the 

 Eucalypts, easily finds the oval whitish cocoons in the chinks 

 in the bark, and must destroy large numbers of the pupge. 



One of the photographs exhibited shows a nestling of the 

 Superb Warbler, J/, snperbus, being ejected from its nest by a 

 newly-hatched Narrow-billed Bronze Cuckoo, G. basalis. When 

 discovered, the nest contained two young birds. The cuckoo, 

 blind, featherless, and apparently not more than a day old, 

 struggling till it got beneath its victim, gradually lifted it to the 

 edge of the nest, resting at intervals, all the while balancing the 

 resisting nestling in the hollow situated between the wings 

 immediately at the back of the neck. Slowly and relentlessly it 

 pushed the unfortunate wren over the side. The photograph 

 shows the position of the birds at this stage. The young wren 

 was replaced in the nest half a dozen times, but always with a 

 like result, until the cuckoo was thoroughly exhausted. 



The dense thickets of Hazel (Pomaderris) and Tea-tree 

 (Melaleuca) are the favourite haunt of the Coachwhip-bird, 

 Psopho les crepitans, and we had several nests under observation. 

 The female seems to do all the feeding of the young. She is 

 often absent from the nest for a period of fifteen minutes, or even 

 longer, one that was timed making five visits in two hours. The 

 young Coachwhip-bird leaves the nest long before it can fly ; 

 clinging to the dense tangle of wire-like grass in which the nest is 

 built, it easily lowers itself to the ground. At four weeks its legs 



