246 CUCULIDiE. 



Genus LAMPKOCOCCYX, Cabanis et Heine. 



LAMPROCOCOYX PLAG08US, LatJiam. 



•Bronze Cuckoo. 



Gould, Handbk. Bds. Aust. Vol. i., sp. 383, p. 623. -22:. /3, 



The Bronze Cuckoo is universally found over the whole of 

 Australia and Tasmania, depositing its single egg in any convenient 

 nest, principally in those that are dome-shaped. I have taken 

 most of the eggs of this species from- the nests of Geohasileus 

 chrysorrhoea. The eggs are in form elongated ovals, being rounded 

 and nearly equal in size at both ends, varying in colour from a 

 uniform light ashy-grey to a rich dark olive-brown or bronze ; 

 four average specimens, taken from the nests of A. lineata, G. 

 chrysorrhosa, G. reguloides, and JS. temporalis, are as follows : — 

 length (A) 0-73 X 0-51 inch ; (B) 0-72 x 0-5 inch; (C) 0'72 x 0-52 

 inch ; (D) 0-73 x 0-52 inch. 



Dr. Ramsay paid particular attention to the working out 

 of this and the following species, by procuring the eggs of the 

 Cuckoo's and placing them in nests convenient for observation, 

 and when hatched obtaining the young birds in all the various 

 stages of plumage, from the nestling upwards, thus enabling him 

 to correctly identify the species to which the eggs belonged, and 

 published the result of his labours in a series of interesting papers 

 in the Proc. Zool. Soc. of London, (see P.Z.S., 1865, p. 460, and 

 P.Z.S., 1869, p. 359), and also supplied Mr. Gould with the eggs 

 and birds of both species at the same time. 



A coloured plate of the eggs of L. plagosus, L. basalis, Cacomantis 

 pallidus, and G. flahelliformis, also of those birds which are 

 usually the foster-parents of the two former species in the 

 neighbourhood of Sydney is given in the Proc. Zool. Soc. for 1869 

 see pi. xxvii., p. 358. Among the latter are the eggs of Accmthiza 

 lineata, A. pusilla, A. nana, Geohasileus reguloides, Sericornis 

 brevirostris, and Stipiturus malachurus. 



Hah. Port Darwin and Port Essington, Gulf of Carpentaria, 

 Cape York, Rockingham Bay, Port Denison, Wide Bay District, 



