New Zealand Cuckoos. 201 



eight cuckoos were hatched, how could the pies pos- 

 sibly have fed so many ravenous young ones — the 

 young cuckoos being almost insatiable in their de- 

 mands for food — even one causing a heavy tax on 

 hedge-sparrows, and wagtails, and pipits ? 



XXVIII. 



NEW ZEALAND EVIDENCE. 



The evidence from other places, and more especially 

 from New Zealand, over large spaces of which we 

 have a temperature and climate not so very different 

 from our own, may help to throw a little light on 

 some points. There are two cuckoos in New Zealand 

 which are distinctly parasitic, but in very different 

 degrees and by different methods. We may accept 

 the fullest and most trustworthy account of these : 



Sir \V. L. Buller, in his able and beautiful book on 

 the Birds of New Zealand, tells of the long-tailed 

 cuckoo there — how it comes from the warm islands 

 of the South Pacific, stays the summer, and breeds 

 in New Zealand ; how it is parasitic chiefly, if not ex- 

 clusively, on the grey warbler {Gerygone flaviventris) ; 

 how the young are fed and nourished by these small 

 birds. It has been found by him at Otaho (in the 

 north island) as late as the first week in April — 

 coming in the end of September or beginning of 

 October. It is a confirmed egg-eater — more especially 

 of the eggs of the tui, or parson-bird, and these birds, 

 whenever they see this cuckoo, mob it, and follow 

 and persecute it. Sir W. Buller, from various cir- 



