GIG BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



partial migration also takes place in the adjacent portion of 

 the continent, as is shown by its numbers being much fewer 

 during winter. It arrives in Tasmania in the month of Septem- 

 ber, and departs northward in Tebruary. During the vernal 

 season it is an animated and querulous bird, and may then 

 be seen either singly, or two or more males engaged in chasing 

 each other from tree to tree. Its ringing whistling call, which 

 consists of a succession of running notes, the last and highest 

 of which are several times rapidly repeated, is often uttered 

 while the bird is at rest among the branches, and also occa- 

 sionally while on the wing. Its food consists of caterpillars, 

 Pliasmidce, and coleopterous insects, which are generally pro- 

 cured among the leafy branches of the trees, and in searching 

 for which it displays considerable activity, and great power of 

 traversing the smaller limbs. When desirous of repose after 

 feeding, it perches on the topmost dead branches of the trees, 

 on the posts and rails of the fences, or any other prominent 

 site whence it can survey all around. Its flight is straight 

 and rapid, and not unlike that of the Cuculus canorus. 



In respect to its reproduction it is strictly parasitic, devolving 

 the task of incubation on the smaller birds, many species of 

 which are known to be the foster-parents ; among them may 

 be enumerated the various MelUhrepti, Ptilotes, Maluri, Acan- 

 iJiizcB, &c. After the young Cuckoo has left the nest, it selects 

 some low dead branch in an open glade of the forest as a 

 convenient situation for its various foster-parents to supply it 

 with food, for the procuring and supplying of which the 

 smaller birds appear to have entered into a mutual compact. 



The specimens of this bird from Western Australia are 

 somewhat smaller, and have the white marks of the tail less 

 distinct than specimens from Tasmania, but these differences 

 are, in my opinion, too trivial to be regarded as other than 

 mere local variations ; but MM. Cabanis and Heine think other- 

 wise, and have assigned to them the specific appellation oiocci- 

 clentalis. When fully adult the plumage is nearly of a uniform 



