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generally winds up with a confused strain of joyous notes, accompanied by a stretching and 

 quivering of the wings, expressive, it would seem, of the highest ecstacy. The cry of the young 

 birds is easily distinguished, being very weak and plaintive. 



Like the Long-tailed Cuckoo already described, this species is parasitic in its breedmg-habits, 

 and entrusts to a stranger both the hatching and the rearing of its young. 



■flaviventris) 



Mr 



records an exceptional case, where the duty was entrusted to the Black Tit {Petmca macro- 



Mr. Gilbert Mair 



Mr 



and fed by a Korimako (Anthornis melanura). 

 Australia, states* that the egg of the Shining Cuckoo has been found in the nest oi AcantMza 

 chrysorUna, and that he has seen a nest of this bird with five eggs, that of the Cuckoo being 

 deposited in the centre of the group, so as to ensure its receiving the warmth imparted by the 

 sitting bird, and thus less likely to be addled. He also narrates the following circumstance :— 



White 



feeding a solitary young bird in its nest, which, when examined, was found to be the chick of the 

 Bronze Cuckoo of the colonists. * * * It was ludicrous to observe this large and apparently 



In due 



well-fed bird filling up with its corpulent body the entire nest, receiving daily the sustenance 



intended for several young Flycatchers." 



As it is usual to find the Cuckoo's egg associated with those of the Grey Warbler, we may 

 reasonably infer that the visitor simply deposits its egg for incubation without displacing the 

 existing ones. But the young Cuckoo is always found to be the sole tenant of the nest ; and the 

 following circumstance, related to me by the Rev. E. Taylor, sufficiently proves that the intruder 

 ejects the rightful occupants, and takes entire possession of the nest. 



He discovered the nest of a Grey Warbler in his garden-shrubbery containing several eggs, 

 and among them a large white one, which he correctly assigned to the Shining Cuckoo, 

 time all the eggs were hatched ; but after the lapse of a day or two the young Cuckoo was the 

 sole tenant of the nest, and the dead bodies of the others were found lying on the ground below. 

 At length the usurper left the nest, and for many days after both of the foster-parents were inces- 

 santly on the wing, from morning till night, catering for the mordinate appetite of their charge, 

 whose constant piping cry served only to stimulate their activity. 



The egg of the Shining Cuckoo is of a broad ovato-elliptical form, generally of a greenish- 

 white colour, often clouded or stained with brownish grey, and measuring -8 of an inch in length 



by -5 in breadth. One taken by myself, : 



Manuka scrub, on what is now the site of a flourishing city, was of a pale creamy colour ; and 



another, which was laid by a captive bird in my possession, is pure white. 



* Gatherm<?s of a Naturalist in Australasia, p. 207. 



Warbler 



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