.■i2 



CUCULIDiE. 



yrey liiothings piiHiidly overlaid with a blackish-brown crescent : h-lJ t/r^yinhdicrn ro/our, n-lntinh nt 

 the tip ; legx and fert slattj-yre;/ : iris red : bare skin arouii't the lye red. Total length in tin- fli-sh 

 '26-5 inches, icing Jo'3, tiiil 11, lidl .;, tarsus IS. 



Adult female. — Similar in plmnage tn the male. 



Distribatioii. — North-western Australia, Northern Territory of South Australia, (Queensland, 

 New South Wales. 



/ I^HE Channel-billed Cuckoo is widely distributed over the north-western, northern, and 

 J- nearly the whole of the eastern portions of the Australian Continent, and according to 

 Count Salvadori '' also occurs in New Guinea, Duke of York Island, New Britain, Ke Islands, 

 Cerani, Bouru, Obi, Batchian, Ternate, Celebes and Flores. 



It has been recorded by Mr. G. A. Keartland and Dr. E. Ilartert from the I'itzroy K'iver 

 and Derby, in North-western Australia, and from the Gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland, by 



r)r. E. P. Ramsay and Count Castlenau, 

 and Mr. A. F. Smith has noted it at 

 In'w^ham, on the north-eastern coast of 

 that State. Durmg many years residence 

 at Ripple Creek, Herbert River, Mr. J. A. 

 Boyd supplied me with dates of its arrival 

 in that district, the earliest being the 13th 

 September, 1888, the latest the i8th 

 Gctober, i8q6, and the latest date of its 

 departure i ith .\pril, 1895. I' 's a spring 

 and summer \isitant to the north-eastern 

 portion of New South Wales, and I have 

 noted it from the Tweed to the Clarence 

 Rivers. "Six. R. Grant, Taxidermist 

 of the Australian Museum, procured 

 specimens both at Cairns, Queensland, 

 and on the Bellinger River, New South 

 Wales. Mr. George Savidge presented 

 three spirit specimens to the Trustees of 

 the Australian Museum in February, 

 1897, which were ultimately sent to 

 the Zoological Society, London, where 

 they formed the subject matter of a paper 

 by Mr. Frank E. Beddard, M.A., I'.R.S., 

 Prosector to the Society, entitled "On the 

 Anatomy of an Australian Cuckoo." f 

 After the breeding season is over, and 

 usually in the early summer months, the Channel-billed Cuckoo, appears towanderaway from its 

 usual haunts, the northern coastal districts, and specimens have been received by tlie Trustees 

 of the Australian Museum from the inland parts of the northern half of the State, and which 

 may be recognised as the normal southern range of this species, although it has wandered as far 

 south as Tasmania. Mr. George Masters informs me that he used to shoot these birds in the 

 Fig trees, in the garden of the late Sir William Macleay, at Elizabeth Bay, Port Jackson, 

 and Caley obtained the specimen referred to by Messrs. Vigors and Horsfield in the "Transactions 

 of the Lmnean Society of London," near Parramatta. A specimen was received in the flesh at 



CHANNEL-HILLKD CUrKOO. 



Orn. Pap. et. Molucc, pt. ii., p. 373 (ibSo). 



t Proc. ZooJ. Soc, 1898, p. 44. 



