1865.] CUCKOOS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 463 
leafy tops of the Lucalyptus trees. The crops in some specimens, 
procured in October last, contained nothing but grasshoppers, which 
appear to be their favourite food. 
In this neighbourhood they usually deposit their eges in the nests 
of Ptilotis auricomis, but also occasionally in those of Ptilotis chry- 
sops, but rarely in those of Ptilotis fusca and Melithreptus lunu- 
datus ; in other districts, doubtless, in any nests suitable for the pur- 
pose. I have frequently observed that whenever the eggs of Cuckoos 
have been deposited m open nests, there is manifested a decided pre- 
ference for those of birds which lay eggs similar to their own. 
The Cuckoo’s eggs mentioned in my notes upon the Yellow- 
whiskered Honey-eater (P. auricomis) in the ‘Ibis’ (vol. vi. 1864, 
p- 245) as being found in the nest of that bird, I have now no 
doubt belong to Cuculus inornatus, and not, as I then supposed from 
their small size, to Cuculus cineraceus. 
The eggs of the Brown Cuckoo (C. inornatus) closely resemble the 
large and almost spotless variety of the Yellow-whiskered Honey- 
eater ; they are, however, somewhat more rounded, and of a much 
lighter tint, being of a pale flesh-colour, sprinkled with a few dots 
of a deeper hue, but often without any markings at all. In length 
they vary from 11 to 123 lines, being from 84 to 9 lines in breadth. 
They are usually hatched about the twelfth or fourteenth day, 
when the young Cuckoo, a little fat helpless creature, is scarcely 
larger than its foster-brethren. However, as it grows more rapidly, 
it soon fills up the greater part of the nest, and its unfortunate com- 
panions, either smothered by its weight or starved to death through 
its greediness, are thrown out by their parents. 
On the 30th of October last (1864) we found two unhappy young 
birds which had been hatched in company with a Cuckoo in a nest 
of Ptilotis auricomis, tossed out and lying upon the ground just 
under the nest ; they were of course quite dead, and appeared to have 
been about three or four days old. 
During the months of October and November it is no uncommon 
sight to see the smaller birds feeding the young Cuckoos ; even the 
little deanthize, which I believe are never the foster-parents, at least 
of this species (C. inornatus), join in supplying their wants, which 
are easily made known by their continual peevish cry, stopping only 
when being fed, or when their appetites are appeased. 
While walking towards home, through a half-cleared paddock, on 
the 27th of last October, I was not a little surprised, upon hearing 
the cries of a young Cuckoo, to see a pair of adult birds of the same 
species ( O. inornatus) flying after it, settling beside it, and apparently 
paying it great attention. Several times they flew away, but returned 
to it again; and from their actions I feel convinced that they were 
feeding it, although, much to my regret, I was unable to obtain a 
view sufficiently close to make sure of the fact. 
(3.) The Crnereous Cuckoo (Cuculus cineraceus): Gould, B. 
Austr. iv. pl. 86. 
This, the third and remaining Cuckoo which annually visits us, 
arrives much earlier than either of the former species. 
