THE CUCKOOS 247 



Siib-family Cuculince.. 

 Wing long and flat, not fitting to the body. 



Key to the Genera. 



I. BUI moderate, never longer than the head or the tarsus. 



1. Bill slenderer. Plumage variegated. 



a. No metallic colours in the plnmage. Sexes 



similar in plumage. 

 Tail fan-shaped. 



Wings longer, reaching beyond tail-coverts. 



Under surface of quills barred. Cuculus. 



Wings shorter, not reaching to ends of tail- 

 coverts. Under surface of wing with 

 a single oblique bar. Cacomantis. 



Tail square. Mesocalius. 



b. The plumage brilliantly metallic. Se.xes often 



different in plumage. Chalcococcy.x. 



2. Bill stouter. Plumage nearly uniformly black with 



greenish-blue gloss. Eudynamis. 



II. Bill very large and robust, more than twice the length of 



the tarsus, and with a lateral groove on 



each side. Scythrops. 



Cuckoos are infamous the wide world over, on account of 

 their habit of depositing the egg in the nests of other birds, 

 the young when about one day old and sufficiently strong, 

 proceeding to turn its foster brothers and sisters out of the nest 

 to perish miserably. Australia possesses a remarkable number, 

 no less than thirteen, of these unprincipled parasites, all alike, 

 from the great Channel-Bill to the little Bronze Cuckoo, 

 pursuing the same vicious tactics. The Pheasant Coucal, 

 belonging to another sub-family, alone preserves the dignity of a 

 self-denying conscientious parent, and tends her own young. 

 None utter quite so dominant a note as the European male 

 Cuckoo, but both the Pallid and the Fan-tailed give forth loud 

 ringing notes. The ringing whistle of the Pallid Cuckoo con- 

 sists of a succession of running notes, the last and highest of 

 which are several times rapidly repeated. The aborigines 

 represented the note of the Fan-tail by the syllables Du-laar. 

 The egg is transposed by the female, probably in all cases liy the 

 mouth, to the nest of almost always an insectivorous bird. If, 

 as occasionally happens, that of a grain eating bird, as a Finch, 

 is selected, the young Cuckoo of course, and we feel deservedly, 

 perishes, for all the Cuckoos are distinctively insect-eating birds. 

 Long lists of foster parents have been recorded by different 

 observers for the various species, and in all cases the remarkable 



