8 WHITE — Heteroscenes pallidas — Pallid Cuckoo. 



coloration and call notes of each sex. We were lucky tn meet 

 with great numbers of these birds on their annual migration 

 south on this trip, also the following- year in the Crawler 

 Ranges. Brief notes of these two trins have appeared in 

 The Emu, Vols. XII., p. 2.; XIII., p. 16. I have supplied Mr. 

 Mathews with my field notes on this bird, but seeing it will be 

 some time before these notes appear in print i f may be as well 

 that I give a short account of my observations. 



In August and September, 1911, while working over an ex- 

 tended piece of country on Eyre's Peninsula, the pallid cuckoo 

 was met with in numbers coming from the north. They 

 were calling all day long in their monotonous series of notes 

 like the running of the scale, in fact, when there was the 

 slightest moonlight or bright starlight their call was often 

 heard in the silent watches. Each day specimens were col- 

 lected, and on being dissected were found to be males. Not 

 one female bird was procured during the trip. When passing 

 through the Gawler Ranges in August and September of 1912 

 we again came upon these birds travelling south in great num- 

 bers. The first five specimens taken were all females, and 

 there seemed to be more of that sex than males. A great deal 

 of time was put into observations on this bird. There were 

 no young birds, and every female handled had well-developed 

 ovaries, in many cases within a few hours of being laid. Every 

 ;one of these females had the rusty brown and grey mottled 

 plumage. All males were in their full plumage, and there 

 was little or no variation in their colouration, the white spot' 

 at the back of the head varied in size in some specimens. One 

 female on being shot deposited an egg upon the ground, and 

 many others contained eggs nearly as fully advanced. 



The males were calling loudly in their long-drawn call, 

 but the females only uttered a short harsh cry repeated once 

 or twice, and this while on the wing at times. 



The adult male has all the under surface gay under tail 

 coverts nearly white, slightly barred with brown. Upper sur- 

 face greyish brown, the primaries and tail feathers much 

 darker. Inner webs of primaries barred with white. Tail 

 feathers barred with white, two centre ones only showing 

 white on the edges. On the back of the hoad a very con- 

 spicuous white spot. Upper tail coverts elongated, forming 

 plum-like feathers, most pronounced at breeding time. 

 Female. — Under surface brownish grey, becoming lighter on 

 the abdomen. All upper surface dark brown, mottled 



