FA]S[-TAILED CUCKOO. 
Mr. F. E. Howe’s notes read : “ Arrives in great numbers at Ringwood during 
September, and all day long their warbling decrescendo note is heard in the gullies. 
On the fine and sunny days they keep fairly high in the timber, and on dull or 
rainy days are low down in the creeks. The egg of this bird is often found in 
the nest of AcantMza pusilla ; indeed, it is seldom that a nest of this httle Tit is 
found without an egg or a young one of this Cuckoo, and great numbers of the 
Acanthiza must perish annually that the young Cuckoos may survive. Sericornis 
frontalis also rears a goodly number, and an egg was found in the nest of 
Meliornis australasianus. The young Cuckoo is very pugnacious, and if a finger 
be inserted into the nest pecks fiercely at it. I believe the Cuckoos pay some 
attention to the young, if they don’t actually feed them. The Cuckoo becomes 
very silent at the end of December, and although they are often seen, the call is 
rarely heard after that month. I think the Cuckoo, when placing the egg in a 
nest (which I believe is accomplished through the agency of the bill) throws out 
an egg or two of the foster-parent. This makes room for its own, and lessens the 
labour of the young bird, who ejects the other nestlings ; but generally the 
Cuckoo’s egg is the first in the nest. The first egg I saw of this Cuckoo was in the 
nest of Acanthiza pusilla, and with a complete set of that bird : the Cuckoo’s 
egg was on top, and those of the Tit were all dented in, as if it had been dropped 
and not laid in the nest. I befieve the number of eggs laid by this Cuckoo 
to be three. In September, 1905, I found three nests of Acanthiza pusilla in a 
certain gully at Ringwood. The first nest contained two eggs and Cuckoo’s, 
second one egg and Cuckoo’s, and third Cuckoo’s egg only. In the last case 
the nest was sodden, and looked deserted and appeared to contain the first laid 
egg of the Cuckoo. The three nests were not more than a quarter of a mile apart, 
and the eggs of the Cuckoo were all of one type, and each egg had a sharp-pointed 
appearance at the smaller end, which added to the length of it. When bom, the 
young are blind and featherless, and have a very dark brownish-black skin and 
the hollow between the shoulders is well defined. One youngster, which I 
judged to be about five days old, had the eyes well open, and at a week old the 
young are in long quiU, each being tipped with yellow. The gape is yellow, and 
the inside of the mouth is also yellow. The feet are of a light hom-colour, and 
the irides are dark brown. At about a fortnight old they are well-fledged, ahd 
leave the nest a few days after (sixteen or seventeen), and are tended by the 
foster-parents for quite another three or four weeks.” 
Mr. H. Stuart Dove’s notes on Cuckoo calls read : “ October 3rd. — ^A trio 
of Fan-tailed Cuckoos in afternoon near the Don River : one was uttering the 
usual pretty trilling call, the second (which had a very slight reddish tinge on 
throat) gave the double-whistle call with an occasional trill, the third called 
‘ weet-^^;ee^ ’ with a shrill quality especially on the second syllable. They kept 
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