135 
During its sojourn with us it subsists almost exclusively on caterpillars, and the black leech which 
attacks our fruit-trees. It is therefore entitled to a place among the really useful species. 
In disposition it is very gentle. On one occasion I was watching this bird from the window of 
my hotel, foraging in the garden below for caterpillars, while a brood of young Sparrows were doing 
the same. Whilst the Cuckoo rested for a moment on a slanting stick, the Cock Sparrow dropped 
down till it almost touched him, as if to inspect his shining coat. The object of these attentions 
never left his perch, but simply swerved his body and spread his outer wing, without uttering a 
sound. I noticed that the young Sparrows were far more active in catching caterpillars than the 
Cuckoo, although botn birds adopted the same plan of search, darting right into the shrub-tops and 
bringing out their victims to batter and kill them before swallowing. 
Its general attitude is that depicted in the Plate, with its tail half-spread and its wings drooping, 
my artist having utilized a pencil-sketch which I made of a captive bird as it rested quietly on the 
paper-basket in my study. 
Its cry is a remarkable one, as the bird appears to be endowed with a peculiar kind of ventri- 
loquism. It consists of eight or ten long silvery notes quickly repeated. The first of these appears 
to come from a considerable distance ; each successive one brings the voice nearer, till it issues from 
the spot where the performer is actually perched, perhaps only a few yards off. It generally winds 
up with a confused strain of joyous notes, accompanied by a stretching and quivering of the wings, 
expressive, it would seem, of the highest ecstasy. The cry of the young birds is easily distinguished, 
being very weak and plaintive *. 
I had a young bird brought to me as late as the 15th February. It appeared to be in vigorous 
health, with the membrane at the angles of the mouth still visible ; and on being approached by any 
one would open its mouth in an imploring sort of way, but without making any sound. 
Like the Long-tailed Cuckoo already described, this species is parasitic in its breeding-habits, 
and entrusts to a stranger both the hatching and the rearing of its young. 
The little Giey Waibler (Gerygone Jlaviventris) is the customary victim; but exceptional cases 
have been recorded wheie the duty was entrusted to the South-Island Tomtit (J fyioinoira inacro- 
cephala) ; and Captain Mail' assures me that he once saw the young of this species attended and fed 
by a Korimako ( Antliornis melanura). Dr. Bennett, writing of the same bird in Australia, states f 
that the egg of the Shining Cuckoo has been found in the nest of Acanthiza chrysorhina, and that he 
has seen a nest of this bird with five eggs, that of the Cuckoo being deposited in the centre of the 
group, so as to ensure its receiving the warmth imparted by the sitting bird, and thus less likely to 
be addled. He also narrates the following circumstance “ A White-shafted Flycatcher ( RMpidura 
albiscapa ) was shot at Hyde, near Sydney, in the act of feeding a solitary young bird in its nest, which, 
when examined, was found to be the chick of the Bronze Cuckoo of the colonists It was 
ludicrous to observe this large and apparently well-fed bird filling up with its corpulent body the 
entile nest, receiving daily the sustenance intended for several young Flycatchers. ,J 
Mr. Gr. M. Thomson lecords in the ‘Journal of Science’ (vol. ii. p. 576) that an egg of this 
Cuckoo w 7 as found on November 5th in a House-Sparrow’s nest which had been built in a large 
bramble-bush and which contained besides three legitimate eggs. He describes it as being “ 10 lines 
long, of very thin texture, and much paler than usual, being of a pale greenish white feebly marked 
with pale brown spots and markings ” J. 
Captain Mair writes to me : — “ Speaking from ten years’ observation of this bird in tho Tauranga district, I may state 
that it never sings after the middle of Jebruai’y and seldom after the beginning of that month. As late as the end of March or 
beginning of April, during several successive years, I have mot with these birds in the Mangorewa forest between Tauranga and 
ltotorua, but never heard them utter a note at this season. I have seen numbers of them perched in silence on the branches of 
the poporo ( Solarium nigrum), always in full feather, but absolutely songless. This I regard as a very curious fact.” 
t Gatherings of a Naturalist in Australasia, p. 207. 
J Mr. Thompson states, further, that in Otago, Qerygone flaviventris, Myiomoira macrocephcda, and Zosterops ccerulescens. 
