Vol. XIV. 

 1915 



] White, Australian Cuckoos. 141; 



Taking the species of foster-parents as a whole, say those used 

 by the PalHd Cuckoo (Cuculus pallidus), in 100 species, it will 

 probably be found that 60 of them do not harmonize. This does 

 not disprove my theory in the proportion of 6 to 4 ; it simply 

 proves that I have been to very great trouble in collecting 60 

 " occasional," while all the time the 40 contain "favourites" 

 which are used in 90 out of 100 cases. Scientists say that I am 

 wrong, and that I cannot prove my case. Well, perhaps I cannot 

 to their satisfaction ; but there can be no harm in giving the 

 result of my experience and observation, as quoted above. There 

 is so much to be learned about Cuckoos that the most experienced 

 of us can be looked upon as beginners only. Any information at 

 all, therefore, should be welcomed. 



A friend lately wrote, stating that a female Cuckoo which he 

 shot contained three eggs, and asked me whether it had been 

 definitely settled that Cuckoos sometimes placed more than one 

 of their eggs in a nest. I replied that, with the exception of 

 Scythrops, I knew of no Cuckoo which habitually placed more 

 than one egg in a nest. I have seen two young Scythrops in a 

 Raven's nest and two in that of a Strepera, while Dr. W. Mac- 

 gillivray records, in a previous issue of the Emit, five in a Crow's 

 nest. We occasionally see two Bronze-Cuckoos' {Chalcococcyx 

 plagosus) eggs in a nest, but I have not noted two young together. 

 I possess a clutch of three Pallid Cuckoos' eggs found by themselves 

 in a Ptilotis nest, but at the time Cuckoos swarmed in the 

 locahty, and the eggs in question were probably laid by different 

 birds. 



In arranging my collection and compiling the following list I 

 have adopted Mr. G. M. Mathews's system of trinomial nomenclature 

 for Australian birds, which, I think, will sooner or later be used 

 by everyone. Whether his separation of the genera will meet 

 with the same appreciation is open to doubt, as, in my humble 

 opinion, the trinomial system should tend to lumping rather than 

 to spHtting up of a genus. However, that Mr. Mathews is our 

 most up-to-date authority upon Australian birds very few will 

 dispute ; it behoves us, therefore, to keep in touch with him and 

 render every assistance possible in the compilation of the great 

 work upon which he is engaged. 



I have been accused by unthinking people of destroying bird- 

 life in the collecting of eggs in what they term a wholesale 

 manner ; but a moment's reflection should satisfy my critics 

 that a collection the size of mine — the formation of which has 

 spread over 30 years, while specimens have come from almost 

 every part of Australia — represents an infinitesimal proportion 

 of the eggs laid ; that natural enemies destroy thousands of eggs 

 for every one taken for scientific purposes ; that the killing of 

 one pair of birds is more destructive than the taking of a dozen 

 eggs ; and that one town sportsman (?) will do more harm in a 

 week than my collecting does in fifty. 



If my collecting has done harm in other parts, it has certainly 



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