160 INSECTIVOBOTTS BIRDS 



PALLID CUCKOO, 



Ciiciiliis pallidum. Lath. 



Kit'kiUus pal'id-us. 

 Cucidus, a cuckoo ; paUidus, pale. 



CucuLUS INORNATUS, Gould, "Birds of Australia," fol., vol. iv., 



pi. 85. 



Geographical Distribution. — The whole of Australia and Tas- 

 mania. 



Key to the Species. — General appearance grey ; eyelash yell-iw ; 

 tail barred with white and fan-shaped ; wing reaching beyond 

 tail coverts ; feet zygodactyl. 



Excluding the winter season the Cuculidaj are always to 

 be found here, and even then solitary birds remain, instead 

 of getting north, as is their migratory habit. Listen for 

 them in the early part of September and you will generally 

 hear the voices of two species apart from the calls of all 

 other birds in this colony. Of the twelve Australian 

 species of cuckoos, six annually visit Victoria. Altogether 

 some 180 species are known, and represented by — (a) True 

 Cuckoos (Cuculime), (6) Lark-heeled Cuckoos (Ccntropod- 

 inae), (c) Bush Cuckoos (Phoenicophoeinai). («) is universal ; 

 (6) is tropical — for example, the Spur-footed Cuckoo of 

 Queensland ; (c) is unrepresented in the Australian region. 



The largest of our mainland cuckoos {Centropus plias- 

 ianus, Lafch.) measures 2 4 inches in length, and is the only 

 non-parasitic species, while the smallest (Bronze Cuckoo) 

 is bh inches, and, like all the others, is parasitic. 



When cuckoos, or cuckows as Professor Newton has it, 

 arrive here to spend the warm season, they do not come 

 with the voice that tells the European people their blithe 

 spring comers have arrived. Even the boys are puzzled in 



