In Now Zealand tin* clock-like regularity of the appearance 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 lirst or second week of January, having devoured the summer caterpillars, it leaves again. 

 ( Occasionally a stray bird has been seen in the North Island as early as August, and a belated straggler as late as 

 April ; but they arc only the exceptions that prove 1 the rule peculiar to migratory birds. 



According to Buller, this bird has ventriloquistie qualities, for the cry is very remarkable. It consists 

 of eight or ten silvery notes quickly repeated. The lirst seems to come from a considerable distance, each one 

 following brings the voice nearer till it issues from the spot where the songster is actually perched, perhaps only a 

 few yards away. Then it winds up with a confused strain of joyous notes, and a stretching and quivering of the 

 win^s, expressive of the highest delight. The young bird has a very weak plaintive note. 



In New Zealand the little Grey "Warbler (Gcryzonc Jlavtccul >/.<?) 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 (Petrceca macrocephala), or a Korimako (Anthovus melcniura). In "Western 

 Australia the nests of the Malurm splendnns are resorted to. 



The egg is a clear olive brown, slightly paler at the smaller end ; the olive brown 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. 



Eabitats : Tort 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.) 



CHRYSOCOCCYX BASALIS. 



A . / S R W - BIZ LED BRONZE CUCKOO. Gents : Chrysococcyx. 



THIS 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 Basalis and 

 Plagosus {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 



