79 



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 

 buds is easily distinguished, being very weak and plaintive. 



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

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



The little Grey Warbler (Gerygone flaviventris) is the customary victim; but Mr. Potts 

 records an exceptional case, where the duty was entrusted to the Black Tit (Petrceca macro- 

 cephala) ; and Mr. Gilbert Mair assures me that he once saw the young of this species attended 

 and fed by a Korimako (Anthornis melanura). Mr. Bennett, writing of the same bird in 

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

 chrysorhina, 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 : — 

 "A White-shafted Flycatcher (Bhipidura albiscapa) was shot at Byde, near Sydney, in the act of 

 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 

 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. B. 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 hi his garden-shrubbery containing several eggs, 

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

 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 inordinate 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, many years ago, from the nest of a Grey Warbler, in the 

 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. 



Gatherings of a Naturalist in Australasia, p. 207. 



