CACOMAN-I'IS. 11 



nie, taken from a nes.t of AiaitthrM pusilla on the 3isl .\u.L;ust, i^'-i},, at IJelmore, \e\v Soutti 

 Wales, wliich contained two e,i^^'s of the rii^htful owner, also an eg^; of Laiiipi'ih'i'iiy.x pliigosus and 

 an egg of L. hassi/li, is lustreless and has only a zone, consisting of almost invisible markings 

 of very faint purplish-brown around the larger end, with a few dots of the same colour, barely 

 distinguishable without the aid of a lens, scattered over the remainder of the shell. This egg is 

 slightly larger than usual, and measures :— o-y x o-h2 inches An egg taken at Middle 

 Harbour, near Sydney, on the 22nd September, iqoi, from a nest of Malurus liijuhii'ti, which also 

 contained two eggs of the latter species, measures : — o-8'5 x o'6 inches. An egg of the 

 I'an-tailed Cuckoo taken from a nest of Orii;iiui mhiiidta, at Middle Harbour on the 19th 

 October, 1901, which also contained two eggs of the rightful owner, measures: — 0-83 x 0-58 

 inches. An egg of this Cuckoo taken from a nest of the same species on the 6th October, igoi, 

 from which I had removed a set of three fresh e,t,'gs of the Rock Warbler on the 14th of the 

 preceding month, measures : — 077 x o-'i inches. Another egg of the Fan-tailed Cuckoo, taken 

 from a nest of Scncornis citreoiiulans, at Ourimbah, on the 6th December, igo8, before the 

 rightful owner of the nest had begun to lay, measures : — 0-83 x o-6i inches. 



Fledgelings are brown above, with indistinct rufous barrings; upper wing-co\erts like the 

 back; quills dull slaty-brown with narrower rutoub-bulf margins ; ed^e of the shoulder while; 

 tail feathers blackish-brown, mottled and edged with rufous-buff; all the under surface dull 

 white, the feathers with broad transverse slaty-brown cross-bars, the sides of the neck and the 

 chest washed with rufous. \\'ing yz inches. Young birds retain this plumage for some time 

 alter they have left the nest, but the wings are browner, and the rufous-bufi" wash is lost on the 

 sides of the neck and chest, the bars on the abdomen are almost obsolete, and the under tail- 

 coverts are white ; upper tail-co\erts dark slaty-grey; the tail feathers are brown, and marked 

 with white, as in the adult. Wing 5 inches. A further advance towards maturity is exhibited 

 in specimens having the head and upper parts mottled with dark slaty-grey feathers, and the 

 under parts brown, mottled on the throat and fore-neck with dull white. Wing 5-3 inches. Not 

 quite adult birds may be distin.Ljuished by the pale rufous buf^ margins to the median and 

 },'reater wing-coverts, and the paler rufous-buft wash to the secondaries. 



Fresh eggs of the Fan-tailed Cuckoo may be found in the neighbourhood of Sydney from 

 August until the end of December. .\s a rule, however, they are more commonly found in 

 September, October and November, and the later fledgelings may be usually observed about 

 the first week in January. At Eastwood on the ist January, 1894, I saw the fledgelings in 

 different parts of the bush beins fed by their foster parents, Gfobasileiis )'cs"loidcs. 



Cacomantis variolosus. 



BRUSH CUCKOO. 



Cuciilns riiriolosii.<, Vig. and llorsf.. Trans. Linn. Soc\, Vol. XV., p. 300 (1820). 



ChchIhs iiispfifnlus, Gould, Proo. Zool. See, 184-5, p. I'.i ; id., Hd.s. Austr., fol. Vol. IV,, pi. 67 (1848). 



Cacomanfis inspi'ralus, Gould, Haiid-hk. Bds. Austr,, Vol. 1., p. G19 (1865). 



CiiciimaiUis variolosus, Shelley, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus,, V'ol. XIX., p. 272 (1891) ; Sharpe, Handl. 

 Bds., Vol. II., p. lf',0 MOOO). 



Adult male. — Gi-neral colour nbore bnurn waslied with olive, and Itaviiiy a slight bronzy tiinje 

 Oil till- back, ruiHji and u/iper tail-corerls ; icitiys brrnvn, tlif iriiui-covi'rls and inner secondaries like 

 til'- back; base of llie ntnvr irebs nf thr i/nills, e.rcepl the outer priuiiiries, u:/iite: tail feathers brown, 

 darker towards t/ie 1 nds, whir/i are lippfd and th'ir inner irebs notclwd or tuotheil ivitli irliite; 



