GHNTS HUDYNAMYS. ( Vigors and Horsfield.) 



ONLY one species of this genus is known to inhabit the Australian Continent, though another is indigenous 

 to New Zealand and the Polynesian Islands. The Indian name of Koel has followed the bird here, and it 

 is locally known as the Australian Koel. The whole genus is parasitic, the eggs being usually deposited in 

 the nests of crows, though the lack of a convenient crow's nest is no bar to the Koel placing the cumbering 

 in some other nest. The sexes differ in size, the female being the larger, but the colouring of the adult is the 

 same. 



Mr. Itlvth states that the Indian species so closely allied to this one, ejects from its mouth the seeds of 

 the fruits upon which it feeds. 



KIDV.XAMVS KLINDKRSII. (rig. and Hors.) 

 AUSTRALIAN KOHL. Genus: Eudynamys. 



rpjl IS is an exceedingly well-proportioned, graceful bird, with very long pinions and a square tail, clad in a blue- 

 black sheeny co.it w hen f ull-plumaged ; but, owing to the fact that the female retains her youthful Cuckoo 

 dress, much confusion of opinion has arisen as to whether the young and adult birds wen" not distinct species. 

 However, a closer knowledge of them has proved that they arc one and the same, therefore Gould retained the 

 synonym Flindersii from its prior rank in the order of names, though it was originally applied to the bird in 



ot £ the earliest stages of its existence, just as it left the nest in a dress of rufous brown, with dark brown 



markings. 



Tlx 1 Australian Koel is commonly to be found in all the coastal brushes from the Eastern Coast of New 

 South Wales as far as Derby in North-West Australia. 



It is probably parasitic like the great majority of its family, but of its habits nothing is known except 

 that it is migratory. 



The adult male is entirely of a sheeny blue-black, with that greenish tint on the back which seems a 

 natural condition of the blending of the two other colours; irides, brown; tarsi, black, with grey scales; bill, 

 horn-colour at tip, black at base. 



The female is about the same size, but her plumage is entirely different, being purely a Cuckoo; head, 

 black, with brown of under feathers showing through ; rest of upper surfaces, brown, speckled with yellowy white ; 

 the fan-shaped tail has alternate narrow and broad crescenting markings of brown, yellow, and white; 

 neck, throat, and breast, warm buff, with irregular lines of dark brown; abdomen and thighs, wavy bands of warm 

 white and black lines ; under tail surfaces, more white than upper ; irides, red ; bill, horn at tip, black at base ; 

 feet, dark grey. 



The young male resembles his mother, except that the markings are more irregular and blotchy. The 

 transformation to the adult plumage is first noticeable on the back of the neck. 



Habitats: Derby. North-West Australia ; Port Darwin and Port Essington, Gulf of Carpentaria, Cape 

 York, Rockingham Bay, Port Denison, Wide Bay District, Dawson River (Queensland), Richmond and Clarence 

 River Districts (New South Wales), South Coast of New Guinea. (Ramsay). 



