EUDVNAMIS. 



31 



note: — "I am sending you a Koel's egg and two Miner's eggs (J/v;iiittl:n ^^'urntla) a.\\ taken 

 from the nest of the latter species. The nest was found by Mr. J. Cahnan, twenty-live 

 feet from the ground, in a tree opposite Mr. H. Osborne's house, as you go towards Grafton. 

 In company with I\Ir. E. H. Lane, who was staying with me at the time, and young Caiman, 

 we visited the tree, and all thought the nest was that of the Yellow-throated Friar-bird (F'hdcmon 

 citrcogularis), in fact if we had seen the Miner leave the nest I doubt if we would have taken 

 the trouble to place the rope ladder up to look into it, as it was in an awkward position to get 

 at. On climbing near it young Caiman managed to get all the eggs out of the nest at one 

 scoop, and reported that one egg was very much larger than the other two. Had we known 

 the treasure it contained we would have been more careful. On his reaching the ground we 

 were both surprised and delighted to find that the eggs he had taken consisted of two Miner's 

 eggs and a Koel's egg. In the same tree Ilahyon iiujclcayi and Gi'ttlliua picaia were nesting, and 

 w^e obtained from the latter a most peculiarly marked set of five eggs." 



This egg of l-"linder's Cuckoo is oval in form, the shell being comparatively close-grained 

 and slightly lustrous, and of a uniform pale reddish-salmon ground colour, over which is rather 

 sparingly sprinkled dots and small irregular-shaped markings, and short wavy streaks of dull 

 purplish-red and purplish-grey, the latter appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell, the 

 markings predominating and being larger on the thicker end, where there are a few small light 

 blotches of chestnut-red, some of which have a washed-out appearance, and partially conceal 

 the smaller purplish-red markings. It more nearly resembles an egg of the Friar-bird or 

 " Leatherhead " {Tnipidorhyiichui loniiiiilalns) than that of any other species. Lenth 1-36 x 0-98 

 inches. 



Immature males resemble the adult males, but have the edge of the wing mottled with 

 white and the under wing-coverts with buffy-white ; all the under surface is conspicuously 

 mottled with rich ochreous-bulT. Wing 8-3 inches. .\ specimen in the Australian Museum 

 collection, procured by Mr. George Masters at Wide Bay in November, 1S67, has a single brown 

 quill, which has the remains of irregular rufous-buft cross-bars. 



The eggs of Flinder's Cuckoo are usually laid in Xorth-eastern New South W'ales and 

 (Queensland from October until the end of February. 



Scythrops novce-hoUandiae. 



CHANNEL-BILLED CUCKOO. 



Scythrops uorcB-hollandicK, Lath., Ind. Orn., V'ol. I., p. Ul (1790) ; Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. 

 IV., pi. 90 (1848) ; i<l., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 628 (180.3) ; Shelley, Oat. Bds. Brit. 

 Mus., Vol. XIX., p. 330 (1891) ; Sharpe, Hand-1. Bds., Vol. II., p. 16.5 (1903). 



Adult m.\le. — General co!"ur abore, inchidiii'j liir irinys and tail, yrey irashed irit/i liijhl olive- 

 brown, all the feathers of the back, scapulars, -upper iriny-cooerts andquills broadly margined around 

 their tips with broiimish-blaek, the tail feathers with a broad sub-terminal band of broirnish-black, and 

 (dl but the central pair, which liave narroa^ white edges, largely tipped tritii white; entire head and 

 neck, mantle, throat and fore-mck grey, piissimj into greyish-white nn the remainder of the under 

 snrface and und'-r tail-corerts, the latter as nvAl as the dunks barred with blackish-brotcn, and the 

 thighs also showing indistinct traces of sitnilar barrings; the under surface of the tail-feathers 

 destitnte of the light nlice-bron-n n-ash nnd thir inner webs toothed )vifh n-hite ; each (f the remaiHing 



