CACUM.WTIS. 13 



'J'he JJrush Cuckoo is a permanent resident in the neighbourhood of Sydney, and may be 

 found about Greenwich, Narrabeen, Kosevilie and Middle Harbour throughout the year. The 

 only time I have noted this bird scarce, or conspicuous by its absence, is in February and 

 March, and generally just about the hottest month of the year, when there is a marked diminution 

 in all species once common in these and other districts. I have frequently taken a walk in 

 the bush at this season, and noted the almost entire absence of birds, where a few months before 

 the place was enlivened with their notes and they were busy with family cares. 



In habits the Brush Cuckoo resembles the preceding species, haunts the same situations, and 

 both are often found in ttie same localities, but it is much more tame and easier of approach. 



The call note is a ringing whistling one, which if imitated by the observer, will soon allure 

 the bird if in the near vicinity. 



Although a resident species, it is usually the latest of all Cuckoos to lay, one seldom 

 finding its eggs until October, and these may then be looked for until the end of January. 



The first to discover the eggs of the Brush Cuckoo, in the neighbourhood of Sydney, were 

 the boys of old Newington College, on the Parramatta River, in 1870, who found it laying in 

 the nests of Khipiduyn alhisccipa. Among the old scholars still resident in the Sydney suburbs 

 may be mentioned Dr. George Hurst, of Homebush, Mr. S. W. Moore of W'ahroonga, and Mr. 

 John Waterhouse, head master of the Boys' High School, Sydney : also :\Ir. Leslie Oakes, a 

 former resident of Parramatta. Dr. Hurst and Mr. Moore continued their researches by finding 

 the eggs of this Cuckoo in the nests of Maliinis attitralis and Ptilotis chrysops. At Eastwood on 

 the 2 1 St December, 1893, I also found its egg in the nest of Rhipidiirn alhisaipa, and on the ist 

 January, iS,,4, in company with Mr. Moore, captured a young Brush Cuckoo at that place 

 which had recently left the nest, and was being fed by a pair of Ixhipidina alhiscapa. Ai a 

 meeting of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, held on the 28th March, 1894, I read the 

 following note '^ :— " I may here point out that eggs of a Cuckoo, taken near Sydney from nests 

 of Rhipiduva alhiscapa. Maliinis cyaiiciis, and Ptilotis chiysops, and described at different meeting's, 

 when we both referred to them as belonging to Cacomantis inspemtiis, as it was the only other 

 species of Cuckoo found near Sydney whose eggs we were until then unacquainted with, have 

 been verified last season by finding similar eggs in the nests of Rhipiduva alhiscapa, as well as by 

 seeing in the same locality examples of Cacoiiiaufis iiispcratus, and by obtaining a young Square- 

 tailed Cuckoo that was being fed by the foster parents, R. alhiscapa." Confirmatory evidence 

 of the correct identification of this Cuckoo's egg, was obtained the following season by 

 my finding the young Siiuare-tailed Cuckoo in the nest of Rhipidma alhiscapa, and liy my later 

 on finding both the eggs and young of Cacomantis variolosns (or inspcratus, the specific name this 

 species was then known by) in the nests of Rhipiduva vnfifrons. Four nests of R. alhiscapa found 

 by Mr. C. G. Johnston and myself, at Chatswood and Itoseville during the latter end of 1898, 

 all contained an egg each of Cacomantis vanolosns, in addition to two eggs of the rightful owner 

 in three of them ; the other contained a Cuckoo's egg only, which the bird had been sitting on 

 for two days, and had almost to be pushed off the nest. Rhipiduva alhiscapa is undoubtedly the 

 commonest foster parent of Cacomantis vaviolosus ar(jund Sydney. Mr. E. H. Lane also found 

 several Brush Cuckoos' eggs, in the nests of this species, on Warabangalong Station, near 

 Dubbo, New South Wales, and over two hundred and eighty miles west of Sydney. 



Near Sydney the eggs of the Brush Cuckoo were unusually common on the highlands of 

 Milson's Point railway line at the latter end of igoh and in January 1907. Mr. A. A. Johnston 

 took no less than seven eggs in as many nests of Rhipiduva alhiscapa. One nest found on the 

 24th November, 1906, four feet from the ground, off which he had to lift the bird, revealed two 

 eggs of the Brush Cuckoo and one egg of Rhipiduva alhiscapa. The nest of this pair of birds he 



* Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Waies. 2nd Sen, Vol. IX., p, 40. 



