10 CUCUI.IIl.'F,. 



i^uttuiiilisj at tile W'enibee Goriie, in ( )ctober : and another egg in the nest of the \\"hite- 

 throated Scrub Wren ( Sfi-irdriiis Jrnii/dlis j, on the 27th Hecember, in the Pandenong Ranges, 

 V'ictoria." 



Mr. Tom Carter sends me the tollowing note from Broome i lill, South-western Australia : — 

 " I shot a female Ash-coloured Cuckoo ( Ciuonmntii flahilliforinis ) at Albany, on the 31SI January, 

 1905, and a male, also at Albany, on the 15th May, 1907, while perched on the telegraph wire 

 between that place and Breaksea Lightliouse." 



From Oueenstown, South-western Tasmania, Mr. (jeo. 1". llinsby writes me : — "I have 

 tound the eggs of the Fan-tailed Cuckoo in the nests of the following species: — Sombre Bush 

 Tit (Sci'icoruis hitmilis), Brown Tail (Aidiithizn liiciiifiu'iisis). Great Acanthiza (A(anthi:a ' Acan- 

 tltitriiis] iiumna). and occasionally in the nest of the Dusky Robin ( .hiuumnh-yas viftataj." 



Mr. iNIalcolm Harrison sends nie the following notes from Tasmania: — " I found a nest of 

 Sei'icoi'nis hinuilis on the 12th November, i''^93, containing an egg of that species and an egg of 

 the Fan-tailed Cuckoo : both were fresh. On the .St h November, iSc(7, I took an egg of the 

 Fan-tailed ("uckijo in the nest of Mdliinis goiili/i (M. cvaiiciis, hTlis, net Gould). ( )n the lOth 

 September, i8gy, I found an incubated egg of the Fan-tailed Cuckoo in the nest with an incubated 

 egg of the Reed ha.rk ( Culniiiautliiis fitliginosits), and on the ijth (Jctober, 1 90S, an egg of the 

 l'"an-tailed Cuckoo in the nest of the ijrown Tail ( AiantliKa liieiiuiuiisis), but it did not contain 

 an egg of the rightful owner. I also found a F"an-tailed Cuckoo's egg on the 13th No\ember, 

 1898, in a nest with three eggs of Acautlionin magna, all of which were partially incubated." 



Mr. S. Robinson also informs me he has in his collection the eggs of this Cuckoo, taken 

 with the following sets : — Aniaufodiyai vittata, Gcnxouc fun a, Malnnis anstra/ls, Rhipidura nUnscapa, 

 Sanliiproita mclaliiua, I'li/ntis t'hrvsops, I', /c'lhvtis, Mclianils iiiiilralasiana. and .-liiaiiiiis tciii'lirosns." 



Mr. George Savidge writes me from Copmanhurst, Clarence River, that he has the eggs of 

 the Fan-tailed Cuckoo taken with sets of Sciicoi'uis ciln-ogulayis and .S'. iiuignii'osti'is. 



From I3r. Lonsdale flolden's notes, made while resident at Circular Head, on the north- 

 west coast of Tasmania, I extract the following: — " Caanniiulis dahfl/ifonm's were numerous on 

 Circular Head Peninsula during September 1886, and often seen or heard two or three 

 together. So far as I ha\e been able to make out by repeated and close obser\ations, 

 they ha\e three ditlerent notes or calls; one is a kind of rattle, another a low short mewing 

 whistle repeated fre(]uently, a third a loud rather piercing yet li(juid single whistle, which 

 is seldom uttered. On the 24th September I shot a bird in the act of uttering his mewing 

 mournful whistle, which is preceded by a short kind of cluck. It was calling to another, 

 which answered in a different kind of key, and after the first one was shot the other Hew 

 about among the trees calling for it with the rattling whistle they utter so frequently. The bird 

 I shot proved to be a male, and its gizzard was full of seeds. At Circular Head 1 ha\e usually 

 first noted the Fan-tailed Cuckoo early in September, but 1 have also seen and heard it in May, 

 June and July. At Bellerive, near Hobart, I had a close view of one on the i8th August, 1889, 

 industriously repeating his rattling scale. In the following year 1 heard one calling on Mount 

 Wellington, near the Huon Road, on the loth |une. ( )n 5th May, 1907, I heard the species 

 calling several times high up on the slopes of Mount Wellington, two thousand feet above the 

 level of the sea. On the 21st July I saw one feeding in our orchard in Bellerive, perching on 

 bare apple trees, and Hying now and again on to the ground to pick up a grub or an insect." 



The eggs of the I'~an-tailed Cuckoo vary from rounded to a compressed or elongate oval in 

 form, the shell being close-grained, smooth, and as a rule slightly lustrous. They are of a dull 

 white-ground colour, which is thickly covered all over with very small dots of pale purplish- 

 brown intermingled with similar but fewer underlying markings of liglit slaty-grey, which 

 predominate on the thicker end, where they form a more or less well delined zone. One before 



