84 
NATURE NOTES 
birds are very independent of weather, and will call away as 
cheerfully when the rains are descending and the north winds 
blowing as when the sun is dispensing his genial rays. The 
large Pallid Cuckoo {Cuculits pallidus) shares the same feeling of 
contempt (or shall we say affection) for Jupiter Pluvius ; but 
the notes of this feathered friend are very different — shrill and 
penetrating to a remarkable degree. In appearance it takes 
much after the Hawks, and in this, as well as in its call, might 
with justice be considered own brother to the Indian Hawk 
Cuckoo [Hierococcyx variiis) “ whose loud crescendo notes are to be 
heard everywhere in the breeding season, resembling pipeeha ! 
pipeeha ! several times repeated, each time in a higher tone 
than the last, until they become exceedingly loud and shrill.” 
Besides these we have an occasional visitor in the imposing 
Channel-bill Cuckoo {Scythrops nova; Jiollandia) from New South 
Wales, and lastly, the two delightful little Bronze Cuckoos 
{Cucidus plagosus et basalis) charmingly small and prettily marked, 
but shy, keeping generally in thick clumps of bush, whence 
their sharp notes may be heard to issue. 
Now all these species are parasitic in habit: needless to 
say, they are also migratory, coming to us from the further 
shore of Bass' Straits, in the springtime, leaving again in the 
autumn for the more genial winter of New South Wales or 
South Australia. But there is an Australian Cuckoo which is 
not parasitic : this is a Queensland species, the Centropus 
phasianiis and, strange to say, it does not migrate, but is 
merely nomadic, roaming from one part of the colony to another. 
Here then, in Antipodean cuckoos, is the very relation between 
migration and parasitism upon which our author speculated. 
Who will trace the mysterious connecting-link which lies hidden 
from common ken ? Is it, in the case of the Queensland bird, 
that the absence of roving instincts prevents its “ mind ” (for 
birds undoubtedly have mind) from becoming unsettled, and so 
the time which would otherwise be spent in crossing seas and 
roaming strange forests and plains in search of a mate, is more 
calmly and profitably employed in domestic duties and nursery 
cares ? 
H. Stuart Dove, F.Z.S. 
Table Cape, Tasmania. 
Concluding Note. — Miss Greenwood’s observation on English 
cuckoos “singing at night ” in N.\ture Notes for 1898 is very 
interesting, as showing how observers at opposite ends of the 
earth may trace similar habits in allied birds, in spite of the 
great differences of climate and environment. The “ Fantailed ” 
is the only species which I have heard indulge in this pastime, 
and very charmingly do its oft-repeated bars of soft trilling 
notes strike upon the ear, borne upon the scent-laden air from 
innumerable flowering wattles. 
