ON CUCKOOS. 
The 
YEAR or two ago, a writer in one of the London 
journals made a suggestion which does not seem to 
have been taken up. At any rate, there was very little 
discussion upon it afterwards in the same journal, 
suggestion was to the effect that the English cuckoo 
being migratory, and also parasitic (that is, utilising the nests of 
other birds in which to deposit its eggs, instead of adopting the 
usual course of building for itself), and the American cuckoo 
being non-migratory and non-parasitic (that is, it does build 
a nest for its own eggs), might there not be some distinct relation 
between migration and parasitism, which has not, so far, been 
traced out ? The writer further suggested that the habits of 
Australasian cuckoos might throw some light upon the question, 
and asked whether any correspondents could assist with informa- 
tion bearing upon the subject, a request that was, I believe, 
not responded to. 
Now, with regard to the American, also called Yellow-billed or 
Carolina cuckoo [Coccyzus amcricanus), I think it can hardly with 
fairness be called non-migratory, seeing that it spends the winter 
in the warmth of the Southern States and then ranges right away 
up to Canada for the summer months. The northward migra- 
tion does not begin until spring is well advanced, and is usually 
completed by the end of May. Most of the birds leave the 
northern States in August, but some linger through September 
and even into October. The ranging over such vast extent of 
country in spring and autumn practically amounts to a migration, 
even although no seas be crossed. 
Another inhabitant of the United States, and one that 
migrates from south to north and vice-versa, in a manner similar 
to the bird just described, is the “ Cowper ” bird {Molobviis 
benariensis), and this, strange to say, does adopt the tactics of the 
European cuckoo, never building for itself but dropping an egg 
here or there into the nests of small birds. The Molobrus is 
not of the Cuckoo family at all, but belongs to the Sturnidae or 
Starling family, and on the approach of winter masses in large 
flocks in the Southern States, thus resembling its cousin, the 
English starling. 
The suggestion, however, with which we started this paper, 
seems really to have some bearing upon the habits of Australian 
cuckoos. Five birds of this family come down from the heat 
of the Australian continent to summer with us in cool Tas- 
mania. Of these, the most plentiful and, at the same time, one 
of the prettiest, is the Fantailed Cuckoo {Ciiculus flabelliformis), the 
familiar bird which sits upon old gum-stumps or orchard fence, 
and utters the rippling musical notes which fall so pleasantly 
upon the ear in the bright hours of spring. And not in those 
hours only, for 1 have noticed that these soft, delicate-looking 
