OF VICTORIA. 167 



creeper. Recent] v, in England, photographs have been made 

 of a young cuckoo in the act of expelling the other young by 

 placing its shoulders under each and lifting them overboard 

 one at a time. The foster parents are all insectivorous birds 

 with one exception (Red-browed Finch) and even that feeds 

 its young on soft insects during the season, which practically 

 means the same. Robins, wrens, chats, tree-runners, and 

 tits (chiefly the latter) pilot the egg and young through 

 their early stages. 



In three birds obtained in the same number of months 

 of 1897 I noticed the following differences : — {a) March : 

 a large proportion of brown in the plumage. Pre- 

 sumably this is a very young bird. {h) August : the 

 wing coverts tipped with brown have disappeared, and 

 the barred markings of the breast are dentate, nearly 

 as in (a). (c) September : the dentate markings are 

 now transverse parallels, and are not so heavy as in 

 {a) and (6). It seems to me the stage ib) is a one-year- 

 old, while (c) is matured or two years old. The presence 

 of bars or stripes on the under surface seems to denote the 

 meaning of plagosus. 



Nest. — Parasitic birds use other birds' nests. This species 

 places one egg in the nest of a tit principally. 



Egg. — One to a nest ; occasionally two will lay one each 

 for the same nest ; uniform bronze colour. Length, 0*65 

 inch ; breadth, 5 inch. 



