In New Zealand tin* clock-like regularity of the aj)pearanee and disappearance of the Shining Cuckoo is 
remarkable. Its sweet plaintive notes are the first harbinger of spring, heard always between the 17th and 21st 
of September. In the first or second week of January, having devoured the summer caterpillars, it leaves again. 
( taoasionally a stray bird has been seen in the North Island as early as August, and a belated straggler as late as 
April ; but they are only the exceptions that prove the rule peculiar to migratory birds. 
According to Buller, this bird has ventriloquistic qualities, for the cry is very remarkable. It consists 
of eight or ten silvery notes quickly repeated. The first seems to come from a considerable distance, each one 
following brings the voice nearer till it issues from tin 4 spot where the songster is actually perched, perhaps only a 
yards away. Then it winds up with a confused strain of joyous notes, and a stretching and quivering of the 
whiles, expressive of the highest delight. The young bird has a very weak plaintive note. 
In New Zealand the little Grey Warbler (G 'cryzoiw jlanicent ris) is usually the victim chosen for foster 
parent, but should this source not be immediately practicable, the Shining Cuckoo has no objection to impressing 
the services of the Black Tit (Petrcsca macrocephala), or a Korimako (Author us melanura). In "Western 
Australia the nests of the Malurus splendons are resorted to. 
The egg i^ a clear olive brown, slightly paler at the smaller end ; the olive browm can be easily removed 
by wetting, and will reveal a uniform light bluish shell. Length, eight lines and a-quarter ; breadth, six lines. 
The female is like the male, except that the bronzy colouring of the upper surfaces is only a wash, and 
the bars of the under surface are much less distinct. 
The young are brown, having the under surfaces grey, without any traces of the bars except on the 
under surfaces of the shoulders ; base of tail, deep rusty red ; irides, bright grey ; corners of mouth, yellow. 
Adult male has head, upper surfaces, and wings, a rich coppery bronze; under surfaces, warm white, 
with wavy lines and bars of rich bronze; pinions and tail feathers, dull brown, crossed at the tip with darker 
brown band ; tips, irregularly fringed with white ; irides, brownish yellow; feet, dark brown. 
Habitats : Port Darwin and Port Essington, Gulf of Carpentaria, Cape York, Rockingham Bay, Port 
Denison, Wide Bay District, Dawson River, Richmond and Clarence River Districts (New South Wales), Interior, 
Victoria and South Australia, Tasmania, West and South- West Australia, New Zealand. (Ramsay.) 
CHRYSO( OCCYX BASALIS. 
A . / K E 0 W - BIZ L ED 11RONZE CUCKOO. Genus : Chrysococcyx. 
TP HIS is a very pretty little bird, so like the Shining Cuckoo that for some time there seemed a possibility of 
their being confounded together, as their habits of migration are similar ; but a close inspection shows that 
the one under notice has a narrower bill, a lighter brown head, a paler-coloured back, the outer feathers of 
the tail strongly barred, and the basal portion of the next three feathers on each side a reddish chesnut. 
It is universally distributed over Australia from the North- West Territory to South Australia, including 
Tasmania ; the southern parts are visited in summer, the northern parts in winter. 
The egg is the same in shape and size as that of the Lucidus, but there the similarity ends ; in colour it 
is a fleshy-white, speckled all over with fine pinkish red spots, which become darker by age. Length, eight lines 
and a-quarter ; breadth, six lines. 
Mr. A. J. Campbell, in his pamphlet on "Australian Birds," says: "The eggs of Basalts and 
Plagoam {Lucidus) are totally dissimilar, except in shape and size. Notwitstanding, the birds bear a great 
similarity — about the same size and colour, only one has a narrower bill and some minor differences on the tail 
