5/6 MR. RAMSAY ON THE FOSTERPARENTS OF CUCKOOS. [Dec. 13, 



ten in number, spends the most of its time on the ground, over 

 which it hops with the greatest agility and ease, or may be found 

 traversing the fences, logs, and fallen trees, peering into every crack 

 and crevice in search of insects, spiders, and larvae of various kinds. 

 On the Murrumbidgee River I found it in company with G. chry- 

 sorrhons, which it closely resembles in habits and actions. A pair 

 have built for a number of years in the side of a hollow branch of 

 an old English oak, close to our residence at Dobroyde, and have 

 frequently had the pleasure of rearing a young Bronze Cuckoo. 

 Sometimes a second pair would take up a similar situation in a branch 

 on the opposite side of the old oak tree. 



Little or no preference seems to be shown in the selection of a 

 site for the nest. It is a dome-shaped structure, having a small en- 

 trance in the side, and composed of grasses and stringy bark, &c, 

 lined with feathers, cotton-tree down, or " possum " fur. It is placed 

 in a tuft of grass, or low bush, or low bushy shrub, but just as often 

 among the loose pieces of bark which, having accumulated in the 

 forks of the gum-trees {Eucalypti), hide all except the entrance of 

 the nest. 



A hole morticed in the side of a post and the fork of a tea-tree 

 where rubbish has accumulated alike serve its purpose, the shape 

 depending upon the position chosen. The nests resemble those of 

 the Malurus cyaneus both in size and shape ; they are, however, 

 much more bulky, thicker, and have a great quantity of lining, which 

 renders them much more warm and comfortable. The eggs, which 

 may be taken from August to December, are four in number, -fa 

 or -jL. of an inch in length, by -fa or -fa broad, having a delicate 

 white ground-colour, spotted, freckled, or dashed with markings of 

 reddish brown of various tints, and a few of purplish lilac brown, in 

 most forming a zone at the larger end ; the eggs of the young breed- 

 ing for the first or second time are white without markings. 



This species has three broods during the season, and if the nest 

 be taken will frequently build another in the same place. 



6. White-throated Gerygone. Geryyone albogularis, Gould, 

 Birds of Australia, ii. p. 97. 



This delicate little bird is only a summer visitant with us, arriving 

 regularly in tolerable numbers every year during September, and re- 

 maining to breed, taking its departure again iu March and April. 

 Its arrival is at once made known by its soft and varied strain of 

 considerable melody. From its song (not that it at all resembles the 

 notes of any other bird), and partly on account of its yellow breast, 

 it has gained the local name of the " Native Canary." Upon its 

 arrival it betakes itself to the smaller trees and saplings, and almost 

 at once commences to build, selecting some strong twig among the 

 innermost boughs of a bushy tree, to which it suspends its oblong 

 dome-shaped nest, the extremity of which terminates in a well-formed 

 tail of about 3 inches in length, which is extremely characteristic. 

 The body of the nest is in length from 6 to 8 inches, and 4 iu breadth ; 

 it is composed of fine pieces of stringy bark and grasses closely inter- 



