86 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



our excursions, mostly built on a horizontal bough overhanging 

 the stream. Two other species of flycatchers — viz., the Satin 

 Flycatcher, Myiagra nitida, Gld., and the Brown Flycatcher, 

 Micrceca /ascinans, Lath. — are occasionally seen. The last- 

 named species builds a very small, shallow nest of dry grasses in 

 the sheoaks and eucalypts, away from the water, on the hillsides. 

 Superb Warblers, or Blue Wrens, are very plentiful about the 

 hut, and at dawn are among the first of the feathered songsters 

 to salute the rising sun. Their multitudinous tinkling notes form 

 a delightful chorus of bird music, pleasant to listen to in the 

 fresh morning air. We have many nests of " Bluecap " in our 

 wild garden, and it was through closely watching one of these 

 that we were enabled to secure the unique photograph of a cuckoo 

 nestling in the act of ejecting one of its foster-brethren, described 

 and reproduced in the Naturalist last year ( Victorian Naturalist, 

 xxi., p. 162). 



The Olinda Valley is a paradise of the Cuculidse. So plentiful 

 are they that Mr. Donald Macdonald, the charming writer of 

 " Nature Notes " in the Argus, has suggested that we rename our 

 domain "Cuckoo Valley." As most of our observations on 

 these wonderful birds have already appeared in the Naturalist, I 

 will pass them over with the remark that they have brought us 

 much interesting correspondence from ornithologists in England 

 and elsewhere. Mr. W. Percival Westell, M.B.O.U., who has 

 made a life-study of cuckoos and possesses the only other photo, 

 besides our own ever taken of an infant cuckoo in the act of 

 ejectment, writes as follows : — "Your notes agree practically in 

 every detail with my own observations and conclusions, as pub- 

 lished in my book on ' The Early Life of the Young Cuckoo.' " 



It may be of interest to mention in passing that Mr. R. 

 Lydekker, F.R.S., of the British Museum, wrote out for a set of 

 our cuckoo pictures, which are now being exhibited in that 

 institution. 



Among the larger kinds of birds frequenting the heavily 

 timbered mountainous country around Olinda are the Butcher- 

 bird, Cracticus desi7'uctor, Temm., a most delightful songster; 

 the Oriole, Oriolus viridus, Lath., the Red Wattle-bird, 

 Acanthochcera carunculata, Lath., the ubiquitous Rosella, 

 Flatycercus eximitis, Shaw, the Spotted Ground-bird, Oindosoma 

 punctatum, Lath., the Brown Kingfisher or Laughing Jackass, 

 Dacelo gigas, Bodd., and many other species. 



In the open grassy spaces the charming little Red-browed 

 Finch, JEgintha temporalis. Lath., flits about in small flocks, and 

 the Grass Warbler, Cisticola exilis, Vig. and Hors., and the Pipit 

 or Ground-Lark, Anihus ausiralis, Vig. and Hors., are also 

 commonly seen. We have found one or two nests of the 

 Stubble Quail, Coiurnix pectoralis, Gld., and the Pectoral Rail, 



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