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‘opinion to the contrary. My language was as follows : 
Butter.—On the Ornithology of New Zealand. 191 
Gerygone flaviventris. The learned author describes, in very pleasing 
language, a nest of this warbler, which he met with at the Bay of Islands, 
when travelling in company with Dr. Hector and Professor Berggren, and 
he concludes with these words :—‘ How the long-tailed cuckoo (Hudynamis 
taitensts) can, as stated by Dr. Buller, (‘ Birds of New Zealand,’ p. 75) 
deposit its eggs in such a nest, I can scarcely understand. On the 22nd 
instant (October), one of my children discovered, under a large Cupressus 
macrocarpa, in my garden, a specimen of the Eudynamis taitensis, recently 
killed, apparently by a hawk. It would have been impossible for the 
Eudynamis to have entered the opening in the nest of the Gerygone.” 
On referring to the page of my work, cited above, it will be seen that, 
so far from making the supposed statement, I expressed a very decided 
“ Very little is at 
present known of the breeding habits of this species (Hudynamis tattensts ). 
‘As I have mentioned above, it is parasitical ; but to what extent, is not yet 
determined. My own belief is, that it performs itself the duty of incuba- 
tion, and then abandons its young to the grey warbler, which instinctively 
accepts the charge, and caters untiringly for its support. In the first place 
it is difficult to conceive how a bird, of the size and form of the Long-tailed 
Cuckoo, could deposit its egg in the domed nest of the last-named species, 
and, even supposing it did, it would seem almost a physical impossibility 
for so small a creature to hatch it, and, again, even were this feasible, it is 
difficult to imagine how the frail tenement of a supension-nest could sup- 
port the daily-increasing weight of the young cuckoo. Over and above al 
this, there is the significant fact that I once shot an adult female of the 
present species, in which the underparts were quite denuded of feathers, as 
‘¢ the bird had been long incubating. Strange as such an hypothesis may 
appear, we are not altogether without a parallel instance in bird-history ; 
for, in the case of the Chrysococeyx smaragdineus, of Western Africa, it is 
alleged, that this cuckoo hatches its single egg, and then, utterly unmindful 
of its parental obligations, casts the care of its offspring on a charitable 
public, and that almost every passing bird, attracted by the piping cry of 
the deserted bantling, drops a caterpillar, or other sweet morsel, into its im- 
ploring throat. My artist, Mr. Keulemans, assures me that he often wit- 
nessed this himself during his residence on Prince’s Island.” 
It will be seen, therefore, that the line of my argument was entirely 
opposed to the theory of the Eudynamis entering the nest of Gerygone. 
Where it lays and hatches its egg I do not pretend to say; but that the 
young cuckoo is attended and fed by the grey warbler, is a fact established 
beyond all doubt. The plate facing page 78 of the “‘ Birds of New Zealand,” 
which represents this little bird performing this parental office to its foster- 
