128 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



The Tasmanian Emu. — The question was raised in the 

 October Naturalist (page 115) as to whether any examples of 

 the extinct Tasmanian Emu exist in museums. Although this 

 emu is now extinct in Tasmania, not very long ago it existed in 

 great numbers. Lycett, in his work on Australia, published in 

 1824, makes many references to it, such as "in quantities 

 between Hobart and Launceston and at Schouten Island, 

 affording most excellent sport," and again as " being in vast 

 flocks," together with kangaroos. In 1843 Lady Franklin had 

 two in a paddock at Government House, Hobart, which in all 

 probability were some of the last of the race. Before I left 

 London in 1840 I saw two specimens in the British Museum, 

 then at Marlborough House, labelled " Van Diemen's Land," 

 and I was much interested in 1892, when visiting the British 

 Museum at South Kensington, to which all the specimens from 

 the other building had been transferred, to see, as I suppose, the 

 same birds, with the same locality, " Van Diemen's Land " ; but 

 before I left London in 1895 they had been replaced by a much 

 finer bird from Queensland. I have no doubt but that the two 

 birds I refer to were genuine Tasmanian birds, being much 

 smaller than those usually seen in Victoria and New South 

 Wales. On a recent visit to the Hobart Museum I mentioned 

 the matter to the curator, hoping that an effort might be made 

 to obtain them for that museum. — T. J. 



Foster Parents to the Bronze Cuckoo. — The following 

 two species have not, I think, been previously recorded as foster 

 parents of the Bronze Cuckoo, Chalcococcyx plagosus, Lath. Mr. 

 J. A. Hill, writing to me from Kewell, says : — " In 1886 I watched 

 a pair of Chestnut-rumped Tits, Acanthiza uropygialis, Gld., build 

 their nest within a hole in a box tree (eucalypt) at about six feet 

 from the ground. I was pleased to feel an egg, and retired at 

 once ; but finding the tits did not return to their nest I concluded 

 they had deserted it, and with a spoon I withdrew the egg. Much 

 to my surprise it proved to be one of the Bronze Cuckoo. The 

 hole in the tree was so small that the tits alone could go through, 

 and the cuckoo could not have done other than drop it from the 

 entrance of the nest to the bottom. The tits deserted their house." 

 Supposing the cuckoo's egg had matured, how would the young 

 cuckoo have got out? Young cuckoos always considerably 

 expand the nest entrance ; but in this case the double entrance 

 would have foiled it, as one was of growing wood. I should not 

 think the tits left their nest because they anticipated that the 

 young bird would be a prisoner, but rather that an offence had 

 been committed against them. The second case which has come 

 under my notice is that of an egg of the same species of cuckoo 

 being laid in the nest of the Red-capped Robin, Petroeca 

 goodenovii, V. & H. — Robert Hall. 8th October, 1900. 



