all 
1865.] CUCKOOS OF NEW SOUTH WALES, 461 
varying from 8 by 6 lines to 10 by 5} lines ; of var. B, from 8 by 5 
lines and 83 by 6 lines to 93 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 ahd 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 (4. nana) I remember 
taking, in the year 1855, no less than six eggs. Among them were 
three of the Bronze Cuckoo—two of var. A and one of var. B. In 
November last (1864) we took another nest of the same species, con- 
taining one of each variety. In this instance one of the eggs, var. A, 
was imbedded below the lining of the nest, and had evidently been 
laid before the nest was completed, as is not unfrequently the case. 
The other egg, which was a specimen of var. B, my brother Percy 
placed in a nest of Acanthiza lineata, which he had found on the 
previous day and left for such an occasion. On returning to it about 
a week afterwards we found that the young Cuckoo had been hatched. 
After the lapse of seven days the bronze feathers were just com- 
mencing to appear, and in about a week or ten days more the young 
bird was nearly able to fly, the bronze on the wings, head, and back 
now showing plainly. 
All the species of Acanthize that we have met with construct oval 
dome-shaped nests, having the entrance near the top, and more or 
less covered with a hood. The nests are either suspended (as in the 
case of A. lineata) from the end of some drooping or horizontal 
bough, or, like those of the Maluri, placed in some low bush or 
cluster of vines, or, as is often the case with 4. reguloides, placed in 
the thick forks or loose hanging pieces of bark of the Eucalypti and 
white-barked Tea-trees (Melaleuca). 
Now, as the apertures of the nests of the dcanthize are exceed- 
ingly small, a question naturally arises whether the Bronze Cuckoo 
lays its eggs in the nest, or places them there by some other means, 
To this I can only answer that the apertures of those nests which 
have contained Cuckoos’ eggs are nearly twice as wide as the open- 
ings of those nests which we have taken before the Cuckoo’s egg has 
been deposited in them. ‘This is more easily noticed in the nest of 
A. lineata, of which the aperture is very small, and neatly covered 
over with a hood. : 
The following are a few extracts from my note-book, showing the 
species which are most frequently the foster-parents of the Bronze 
Cuckoo :— 
