290 Zoological Society : — 



shelves from before backwards, and is crested with some conical pro- 

 minences which indicate the lateral processes of the different ver- 

 tebra of which the mass is formed. The first dorsal vertebra is 

 sometimes partially anchylosed with the seventh cervical. 

 The arm-bones are very short. 



Notes upon the Cuckoos found near Sydney, New South 

 Wales. By Edward P. Ramsay. 



(1.) The Bronze Cuckoo (Chakites lucidus) : Gould, B. Austr. 

 iv. pi. 89. 



We have for many years been under the impression that the females 

 of this species lay two distinct varieties of eggs, which, although in 

 many instances exactly the same in size, differ widely in colour and 

 in style of marking. 



The most satisfactory way of determining this question was to 

 procure specimens of each of these different eggs, and to place them 

 in nests of the Malurus cyaneus, or of various Acanthiza (which 

 had been built sufficiently near our residence to admit of our occa- 

 sionally visiting them), until they were hatched, and then to com- 

 pare the young birds so hatched from each of the different eggs. 

 This we succeeded in doing in more instances than one, and found 

 that the voung birds were in every case alike, and that when they 

 were sufficiently fledged we had no difficulty in recognizing them to 

 be the young of the Bronze Cuckoo (Chalcites lucidus). 



The first variety of the eggs in question (var. A), usually recog- 

 nized as the egg of the Bronze Cuckoo, varies in colour from a uni- 

 form ashy grey to a rich dark olive-brown or bronze, many of the 

 light ashy-grey specimens having minute dots of deep olive towards 

 the larger end. In one specimen, in which these dots form a blotch, 

 they are more inclined to reddish brown. 



Var. B has a purely white ground, blushed with pink before the 

 egg is emptied, and minutely freckled over the whole surface with 

 dots of light brownish red or dull salmon-colour, running in some 

 instances into blotches which stretch half across or round the surface, 

 leaving patches of the white ground without any markings. Occa- 

 sionally we find a specimen in which the salmon-colour and bronze 

 seem to be blended, forming a curious brownish-lilac tint. 



Both varieties vary much in size : we have specimens of var. A 

 varying from 8 by 6 lines to 10 by 5^ lines ; of var. B, from 8 by 5 

 lines and 8| by (i lines to 9| by 6 lines in breadth. The colouring- 

 matter of both varieties easily rubs off, especially when the eggs are 

 freshly taken. The Bronze Cuckoo seems to give no preference to 

 any particular character of country, being found equally numerous 

 in all parts. In the thick shrubs and low brushwood it finds a secure 

 place for depositing its eggs in the nests of Malurus Lamberti and 

 Acanthiza pusilla. In the half-cleared patches of land and even in 

 our gardens and shrubberies it seeks for the nests of the Malurus 

 cyaneus, Acanthiza lineata, A. reguloides, and A. nana. 



From a nest of this last-mentioned species {A. nana) I remember 



