1897] NOTES AND COMMENTS 293 
will be valuable to naturalists elsewhere than in Australia. The 
Australian species which have come under observation are carefully 
described and figured. 
In addition to such systematic work, Mr Froggatt turns his 
attention to economic problems, and we have received several of his 
entomological notes from the Agricultural Gazette of New South 
Wales for the current year. Some of the insects dealt with are 
native species, which have become destructive in gardens and 
orchards, while others are familiar British forms introduced with 
European plants. 
THE Cuckoo 
THE nesting habits of cuckoos are always interesting, and Mr A. J. 
Campbell has recorded in the Victorian Naturalist for August a list 
of the foster-parents of the Pallid Cuckoo (Cuculus pallidus, Lath.) 
of Australia. The observations show that the cuckoo almost always. 
selects open nests, and that the Honey-eaters are the most favoured 
foster-parents. Mr Campbell mentions that the supposition that 
the cuckoo throws out the egg or eggs of the foster-parent to make 
room for its own has not been proved with regard to the Pallid 
Cuckoo ; but he has found a broken egg of the bird underneath the 
nest of the White-shouldered Caterpillar-catcher (Lalage tricolor). 
At present there is no record of any cuckoo’s egg having actually 
been taken from any Caterpillar-catcher’s nest, though one of these 
birds has been observed feeding a young Pallid Cuckoo. 
THE MENTAL DEVELOPMENT OF A CHILD 
THE latest of the series of larger monographs published by the 
editors of the Psychological Review is a careful record by Mrs 
Moore of the behaviour of her boy during his first two years. Such 
records by psychologically-instructed observers are likely to be of 
much use for child-psychology ; and this may be said of the present 
one, though the want of arrangement in the earlier part detracts 
seriously from its value. Great masses of facts are bewildering 
unless arranged on some principles. The writer begins very sug- 
gestively by distinguishing four periods—first, of seeing till the end 
of the fourth month; second, of feeling or fingering things till the 
seventh month; third, of examination or more systematic explora- 
tion ; fourth, of speaking from the close of the first year. Unfor- 
tunately, this division does not reappear in the body of the work. 
The classification of movements is also confused. But having said 
this, we may be grateful to Mrs Moore for what she has given us; 
and it will be best here to select a few of the interesting points 
which occur in the course of the work. The first is a notice of 
