78 



forming a broad oblique bar on the under face of the wing ; under wing-coverts and axillary plumes 

 indistinctly barred with coppery brown ; tail, when closed, bronzy green, with a broad subterminal band 

 of purplish brown ; upper tail-coverts bright golden green, the lateral ones largely marked with white 

 on their outer webs. On spreading the tail the outermost feather on each side is found to be blackish 

 brown, with five broad white bars on the inner web, the fifth one being terminal, and with five irregular 

 spots of white on the basal portion of the outer web ; the next feather blackish brown, slightly glossed 

 with green, marked on the inner web with two obscure spots of rufous, darker brown towards the tip, 

 and terminated by a round spot of white; the succeeding one similar, but without the rufous markings, 

 and with the terminal spot on the inner web much smaller ; and the median feathers coppery brown, 

 glossed with green, and crossed by a darker subterminal bar. Irides and bill black ; tarsi and toes 

 brownish black; soles of feet yellowish. Total length 7 inches; extent of wings 11 75 ; wing, from 

 flexure, 4; tail 2'75; bill, along the ridge - 5, along the edge of lower mandible - 75; tarsus *5; longer 

 fore toe and claw '8, longer hind toe and claw - 65. 



Young. Metallic tints of the upper parts duller ; upper wing-coverts edged with brown ; tail-feathers as in 

 the adult, but with the rufous markings obsolete ; throat and fore part of neck yellowish white, clouded 

 and mottled with dusky brown, faintly glossed with green; underparts generally yellowish white, 

 marked on the sides and flanks with fragmentary or interrupted bands of dull shining green ; the under 

 tail-coverts crossed by broad triangular spots of the same. 



The Shining Cuckoo is an inhabitant of Australia, and appears in New Zealand only as a summer 

 migrant. Its cry is always welcomed by the colonists as the harbinger of spring ; and during its 

 short stay with us its sweet but plaintive notes may be heard in every grove throughout the long 

 summer days. It makes its appearance, year after year, with surprising punctuality, arriving first 

 in the extreme north, and about a fortnight later spreading all over the country. A correspondent 

 informs me that for three successive years, at Whangarei (north of Auckland), he first heard its 

 familiar note on the 21st September, and that on one occasion he noticed it as early as the 3rd of 

 that month. Another correspondent, in the same locality, informs me, as the result of twelve 

 years' careful observation, that this migrant invariably appears between the 17 th and 21st of 

 September. For a period of ten years I kept a register of its periodical arrival, and noted its 

 regular occurrence between the 5th and 10th of October. Mr. Potts writes to me from Canter- 

 bury that it generally arrives there on or about the 8th October, although in one year (1855) it 

 visited that part of the country as early as the 27th September. It usually departs about the 

 first or second week in January ; but in the far north it sometimes lingers till the end of that 

 month. As is always the case with migratory birds, there are occasionally stragglers arriving 

 before the appointed time or lagging behind the departing flights. For example, I have a record 

 of their occurrence in Auckland as early as August 17th, and I have met with a solitary bird in 

 the south as late as April. 



During its sojourn with us it subsists almost exclusively on caterpillars, and is, therefore, 

 entitled to a place among the really useful species. 



The cry is a remarkable one, as the bird appears to be endowed with a peculiar kind of ven- 

 triloquism. It consists of eight or ten long silvery notes quickly repeated. The first of these 

 appears to come from a considerable distance ; each successive one brings the voice nearer, till it 

 issues from the spot where the performer is actually perched, perhaps only a few yards off. It 



