THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
F. E. Howe {EmUy Vol. V., p. 35, 1905) states : “ On two occasions I 
have seen the Cuckoos visit the nest where their young was. Once at Whittlesea 
(Christmas, 1902), I found a nest of A. chrysorrhoa and in it a young Cuckoo, 
and while there the parent bird came to the nest and fed the young one ; 
meanwhile, the foster-parents were in a great state of excitement, and repeatedly 
dashed at her until she left the vicinity.” 
In the same volume, p. 209, Brent records an instance of two pairs of 
Honey-eaters (different species) feeding one young Cuckoo. 
Barrett further contributed to the next volume, p. 55, 1906, another good 
general article on “ The Origin and Development of Parasitical Habits in the 
CuculidcB,^^ dealing with general theories on the subject by various workers, 
chiefly extra-Hmital and in connection with genera foreign to AustraHa. I 
must refer my readers to these articles, as I cannot quote all in this place, 
and must also draw attention to the fact that in the synonymy of the Cuckoos 
I have omitted scores of references to short items dealing with foster-parents, 
etc., of which so many appear in the volumes of the Emu, etc., and are of 
more or less local interest. 
From the South Australian Ornithologist, Vol. III., pt. 5, p. 131, 1 take the 
following : “ When on the wing they utter a harsh discordant scream ; but 
when perched the note is very different. ... It is said that the whisthng note 
is sometimes uttered when on the wing. . . . When uttering the whisthng note, 
the male sits with the head up and the wing drooped ; this note is not made by 
the female, but both sexes have the harsh flight call. The whistling caU is 
uttered at night, more commonly on moonlight nights ; but also when quite dark.” 
In this same journal it is said the difference between the male and female 
was first pointed out in an earlier part of the work. But I did this in the Austral 
Avian Record in January, 1912, some two years before the said journal was started. 
Mr. Edwin Ashby’s notes read : “ The Pallid Cuckoo is very common in 
South Australia. It is migratory, reaching our Blackwood district in July. 
This year, 1917, it was first heard in the first week of July. On its first arrival 
the ‘hoarse call ’ is much more frequently heard than is the well-known melan- 
choly whistle. The whistle is a running series of eight to twelve notes, of whicli 
the first and last are usually repeated several times, the whole covering about 
six semitones in an ascending scale. Its flight is, in common with most Cuckoos, 
an undulating one, due to a habit of closing the wings after a series of rapid beats 
which causes a corresponding drop, thus producing the undulating effect. 
These birds are fairly numerous throughout this State until weU into the summer. 
Their departure is a gradual one, so that it is difficult to assign any date to the 
outward migration. In the neighbourhood of Mt. Dandenong, in Victoria, I 
found this species very numerous in October, 1914, though by no means equal in 
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