CUrULID.E. 



The nest of the Hrown Hush \\'a.vhler {Gi-n'i;«uf fust n) here tiKurecl, 1 loiind at ( )uriiiiliah 

 in November, when it was just ready for eggs, built on a thin drooping twig of a Lilly-pilly, 

 about eight feet from the ground, which runs the whole length of the structure. The entrance, 

 which is only slightly hooded, not spouted, is scarcely large enough to admit its dinnnutive 

 owner, which may be seen on the left, while on the right is the Bronze Cuckoo, whose eggs 

 I have frequently found in the nests of this species, and so far as I ha\e observed, without 

 the entrance being enlarged. 



It was at a meeting of 

 the Linnean Society of New 

 South Wales,'' held on the 

 25th October, iSg3, that I 

 first drew attention to the 

 protective habit of some 

 Australian birds, who cover 

 the egg of the Cuckoo, when 

 deposited in their nests, 

 with a thick- layer of lining 

 material sufficiently thick 

 to prevent incubation. 



When the Cuclcoo egg 

 is hatched, the intruder is 

 generally found to be the 

 sole occupant of the nest, 

 even while still a bare, 

 callowand apparently help- 

 less creature, with eyes as 

 yet unopened, and only here 

 and there a small tuft of tine 

 Idanientous down. I''rom 

 this time onwards, and a 

 while after it has left the 

 nest, the diminutive foster- 

 parents appear to strive in 

 vain to supply it with suffi- 

 cient food, and resting or 

 Hying after them it nearly 

 always loudly clamours to 

 be fed. 



( )f the Shining Cuckoo 

 (Lainpvoioicyx huidia) there 

 are three skins in the Aus- 

 tralian Museum Collection, one procured by the late INIr. J. A. Thorpe, at Cape ^"ork in 1867, 

 and the second and third specimens, both adult females, were respecti\ely received in the flesh 

 by the Trustees of the Australian Museum on the 13th .\pril, 1905, one obtained by Mr. II. (). 

 Jackson at Mosman, and the other procured during the same month of H)o8 by Mr. Hugh Pollock 

 (Trustee) at l-'arlin;.; Point; both oi these localities are harbour-side suburbs near Sydney. Dr. 

 \l. P. Kamsay does not include this species in his " Tabular List of Australian Birds." These 

 specimens are similar in colour and markings to an example in the collection received from the 



NEST OF |;H<]\VN DL'SII WAliBLK.K AND liHciNZK OUOvOO. 



* Abstr. Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S Wales, p. iv., 27th Oct., 1S93. 



