460 MR. E. P. RAMSAY ON THE [May 23, 
tentibus, dense rufo-castaneis ; marginibus undique regulariter 
excurvatis ; lunula planata, satis definita; sublevi, secundum 
incrementa lirulis coneentricis, antice solum definitis, vix 
sculpta: intus colore intensiore ; dent. card. il., ii.; lat. ant. 
curto utraque valva uno; cicatr. adduct. suborbicularibus ; 
linea palliari a margine simplici valde remota, haud inflecta : 
ligamento curtiore, omnino extus sito. 
Long. 6 lin., lat. 5 lin., alt. 4 lin. 
Hab. Port Jackson, New South Wales; dredged in 5 fathoms 
(Angas). 
An interesting addition to the few known species of the original 
genus Gouldia, C. B. Ad., & primd manu, of which the British Circe 
minima, auct., is typical. The Gouldie of the Panama and Mazat- 
lan Catalogues prove to belong to an aberrant form of Crassatella. 
6. Nores urpON THE CUCKOOS FOUND NEAR SyDNEY, New 
Souta Wares. By Epwarp P. Ramsay. 
(1.) The Bronze Cuckoo (Chalcites lucidus) : Gould, B. Austr. 
iv. pl. 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 Acanthize (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 young 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 (Chalecites 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 
- ege 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 
