PALLID CUCKOO 
211 
larly on the long courting-chases through the trees 
characteristic of the Pallid Cuckoo in October. 
In some years Cuckoos come in great numbers ; 
there was such a year in 1891, and another in 191 3. 
I never remember so many Cuckoos about as in the 
last year : you could not drive two miles out of the 
town without seeing and hearing them, and the Park 
resounded with the calls of Cuckoos to their mates. 
The flight is direct but undulating. Food consists 
of insects ; they are remarkably fond of caterpillars. 
Eggs are not usually laid before the middle of 
October, and may be found thence up till the beginning 
of December, in the nests of various species of small 
birds. I have seen or heard of their being observed 
in the nests of the Minah, Wattle-bird, Yellow-faced, 
Lunulated, and White-plumed Honeyeaters, Scarlet 
Robin, and the imported Greenfinch and Goldfinch ; 
of native birds the White-plumed Honeyeater near 
the towns and the Lunulated in the bush are the 
foster-parents for whom the Cuckoo evinces greatest 
partiality. It seems indisputable that the egg is 
laid on the ground and carried to the nest in the 
Cuckoo's beak. It would be quite impossible for 
the Cuckoo to lay an egg in the nest of the Lunulated 
Honeyeater, for instance, in the ordinary way. Note- 
worthy it is, too, that this kind of Cuckoo always 
puts its egg in an open nest, at least in this district ; 
we shall see that the Bronze Cuckoo invariably 
chooses a domed nest. The egg is cream-coloured 
with a few faint reddish-brown spots. 
