f:ucULL:.s. 



was on the open grass land in Beltana N'llla-e. The common call of this Cuckoo begins witli 

 four quick notes on A above the treble clef, and makes eleven intervals up to D; sometimes 

 it stops half way. Mr. May, of Sandford, informed me that Pallid Cuckoos were numerous in 

 that locality in 1903, and that he frequently found eggs in the numerous nests of the Goldfinch 

 (Cavdiii-lis clcgaus )." 



The Pallid Cuckoo deposits its eggs, in common with other members of the family Cnadid,,; 

 in the nest of another bird, but principally in the open cup-shaped nest of a Honey-eater, upon 

 the rightful owner of which devolves the task of incubating the egg and rearing the newly 

 hatched intruder. The latter duty is often more laborious than attending to the wants of an 

 entire brood of young ones, for all young Cuckoos apparently have insatiable appetites. Some- 

 times the young Cuckoo is attended to by two or more species, and occasionally by adult 

 Cuckoos. The Pallid Cuckoo always selects an open cup-shaped nest wherein to deposit its 

 egg, Honey-eaters being more favoured than others in this respect, probably because their nests 

 are less concealed and more easily found. In the neighbourhood of Sydney I have more often 

 found the egg of this Cuckoo in the nests of the Vellow-tufted Honey-eater (I'tilotis aui'lamiis), 

 the Vellow-faced Honey-eater (Z'. r/;nv./>s), and the I.unulated Honey-eater, or "Black-cap" 

 {MelithnptHs atyicapillns), and far less fre(iuently in the nest of Lewm's Honey-eater {Ptilotts 

 IcKdnii) and Fuscous Honey-eater (P. fuua). Inland the nests of the White-eared Honey-eater 

 (/W,.//5/,7/,v/ij), the White-plumed Honey-eater (/'. /,7;/c77/.(/j), and the Singing Honey-eater 

 [P. sonora) are frequently selected as convenient receptacles for the eggs of the Pallid Cuckoo. 

 They may, on rare occasions, be found also in the nests of the different species of Wood Swallow, 

 the Kufous-breasted and the Yellow-breasted Thickheads, Olive-backed Oriole and Magpie 

 Lark. At various meetings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, I have exhibited 

 sets of eggs consisting of an egg of the Pallid Cuckoo with eggs of the following species:— 

 Harmonious Shrike Thrush {Co/lvi'iotith/ti harmonica). Fulvous-fronted Honey-eater {Glyiiphila 

 fulvifions). Warty-faced Honey-eater (Mtliplu^'a plinx'ia), and Yellow-throated Miner (Myzantlia 

 Jlavt^ida). As a rule it will be found that the eggs are deposited in the nests of birds about one 

 half its own size. I first found the eggs of this Cuckoo in the nest and with an egg of Melitknffns 

 atricapUliti ; this species, however, sometimes outwits the Pallid Cuckoo. Mr. I-Vank A. 

 Shelley brought me a nest for e.xamination from which he had successfully scooped two eggs of 

 the Lunulated Honey-eater, and then cut ofH' the branch in the leafy end of which the nest was 

 built. On looking into the nest, which had fallen a distance of forty feet, he was surprised to 

 find an egg of the Pallid Cuckoo almost completely embedded in the lining material at the 

 bottom of the structure, which subse.juently I removed. Mr. K. Burfoot, at Roseville, 

 also found a broken egg of the Pallid Cuckoo beneath the nest of the White-shouldered 

 Caterpillar-eater (Lalagc tnivlor), which had evidently been turned out by the owners of the 

 nest. 



.A pair of Short-billed Honey-eaters (Melithrcpius hvevirosti'is) reared a young Pallid Cuckoo 

 in a nest built in a tree adjoining the fence of my house at Roseville. I caught this fledgling 

 on the 6th January, 1904, and procured both of the foster parents, and they now form one of 

 the groups in the collection of the Australian Museum. 



The mode of ejection of other young birds that may be occupants of the same nest, 

 when the young Cuckoo is hatched, has been witnessed many times, and is always 

 performed in the same manner. It must be instinct that induces a callow and apparently 

 helpless Cuckoo, only comparatively a few hours old and with eyes unopened, to successfully 

 wriggle itself beneath each other occupant, one by one, until it gets the young bird on its back, 

 and by dint of perseverance ejects it over the side, or out of the entrance of the nest. How 

 seldom, too, even at this early stage of the young Cuckoo's existence, does one find that it is 

 not the sole occupant of the nest. I have often gone a little distance out of my way to examine 



