CUCKOOS 



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Cuckoos. 



In the cuckoo tribe, Cuculidee, the extraordinary channel-bill 

 (Scythrops novce-hollandlce), of Australia, Papua, and the Moluccas, 

 takes its name from the presence of two deep grooves on the sides of the beak. 

 The head is grey, the back brownish, the under surface whitish with faint dusky 

 barrings, and the bare region round each eye scarlet. Among other cuckoos, the 

 widely spread Cuculus sattoratws visits north-eastern Australia, while C. pallidum 



LAUGHING KINGFISHER. 



is peculiar to that continent and Tasmania, where two species of the allied genus 

 Cacomantis also occur. Mesocalius palliolatus alone represents a genus con- 

 fined to Australia, the Aru Islands, and the Moluccas, and most of the species 

 of C'halcococcyx are also Australasian. In regard to the breeding-habits of 

 Australian cuckoos, it has been stated that only an infinitesimal proportion of 

 their eggs approximate in size, colour, markings, and shape to those among which 

 they are laid. There are, moreover, numerous instances in which Australian 



