CUCULUS INORNATUS, 
Unadorned Cuckoo. 
Vig. and Horsf, 
Cuculus inornatus, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 297. 
albostrigatus, lb., p. 298. young. 
Dju-dur-run, Aborigines of Western Australia. 
Greater Cuckoo of the Colonists. 
The southern portion of Australia generally, and the island of Van Diemen’s Land, are inhabited by this 
species of Cuckoo ; to the latter country, however, it is only a summer visitant, and a partial migration also 
takes place in the adjacent portion of the continent, as is shown by its numbers being much fewer during 
winter. Its migratory movement seems to be regulated, as in most other instances, by the more or less 
abundant supply of food necessary for its sustenance. It arrives in Van Diemen’s Land in the month of 
September, and departs northward in February. During the vernal season it is an animated and querulous 
bird, and it may then be seen either singly, or two or more males engaged in chasing each other from tree 
to tree. Its ringing whistling call, which consists of a succession of running notes, the last and highest of 
which are several times rapidly repeated, is often uttered while the bird is at rest among the branches, and 
also occasionally while on the wing. Its food consists of caterpillars, Phasmidce and coleopterous insects, 
which are generally procured among the leafy branches of the trees, and in searching for which the bird 
displays considerable activity, and great power of traversing the smaller limbs. When desirous of repose 
after feeding, it perches on the topmost dead branches of the trees, on the posts and rails of the fences, or 
any other prominent site whence it can survey all around. It is however by no means a shy bird, and but 
little caution is required to approach within gun-shot. Its flight is straight and rapid, and not unlike that 
of the Cuculus canorus, to which it bears a close resemblance in everything except its note ; occasionally it 
mounts considerably above the tops of the trees, and it is capable of sustaining a long-continued flight. 
In respect to its reproduction it is strictly parasitic, devolving the task of incubation on the smaller birds, 
many species of which are known to be the foster-parents ; among them may be enumerated the various 
Melithrepti, Ptiloti, Maluri, Acantliizce, See. After the young has left the nest and attained a considerable 
size, it is not unusual to see it fed by two or more species at the same time ; this I have witnessed with my 
own eyes ; the young Cuckoo, in fact, selects some low dead branch in an open glade of the forest, from 
which it seldom moves during the day, as a convenient situation for its various foster-parents to supply it 
with food, for the procuring and supplying of which all the smaller birds appear to have entered into a 
mutual compact. 
The specimens of this bird from Western Australia are somewhat smaller, and have the white marks of 
the tail less distinct than specimens from Van Diemen’s Land, but these differences are too trivial to be 
regarded as other than mere local variations. When fully adult the plumage is nearly of a uniform brown, 
with the inner webs of the wing and tail-feathers relieved by bars and markings of white ; the immature 
colouring on the contrary presents a variegated and very diversified character, which, owing to the constant 
change taking place, cannot he described so as to render it clear to my readers. When the young leaves 
the nest, the throat, face and shoulders are black, the feathers of the remainder of the body crossed and 
spotted with buff ; the black colouring gradually gives place to the grey of the under surface, while the 
huffy marks of the upper surface are retained even after the second or third moult ; it breeds in this state, 
and it is doubtful whether in the female it is ever entirely cast off. 
The stomachs of those dissected were found to be capacious, membranous, and thickly lined with hair. 
The egg is about seven-eighths of an inch long by five-eighths broad, and is of a cream-colour speckled all 
over with markings of brown. 
The adult male has the head, neck and all the under surface brownish grey, with a streak of dark brown 
down the sides of the neck ; all the upper surface olive-brown, becoming much darker on the wings and 
tail ; basal portion of the inner webs of the primaries broadly barred with white ; tail-feathers barred on the 
margins of both webs with white, slightly on the outer and deeply on the inner ; all the feathers tipped with 
white, and with a mark of white on the stem near the tip, this mark being very small on the central tail- 
feather, and gradually increasing on the lateral feathers until on the outer it forms a band ; under-irides 
very dark brown ; eyelash yellow ; gape and inside of the mouth rich deep orange ; feet olive. 
The female differs in having the upper surface mottled with buff and i-ufous, in having a triangular spot 
of reddish huff at the extremity of each of the wing-coverts, and the markings of the tail buff instead of 
white ; all which markings may in very old birds give place to a style of colouring similar to the male. 
The young, independently of the differences pointed out above, has the feet yellowish olive, the soles of the 
feet yellow ; the bill yellowish olive, the corner of the mouth and the tip of the hill being more yellow than 
the rest of that organ ; irides greyish brown. 
The figures represent the two sexes of the natural size. 
