1 
THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
rare here, only seen occasionally. Jan. 13, 1912. Ten miles S.E. of Snake 
Bay. This species is very common here, many being seen or heard every day. 
Feb. 5, 1912. Cooper’s Camp. None have been recently seen here.” 
Macgilhvray {Emu, Vol. XIII., p. 162, 1914) has written : “ The Square- 
tailed Cuckoo, or a smaller variation of it, was common at Cape York, frequenting 
the swamps and open pockets, and being rarely met with in the scrubs. The 
tea-tree swamps behind the mangroves are resorted to by the small Honey- 
eater, Glyciphila modesta, for breeding purposes. In numbers of their nests 
Mr. McLennan found one or more eggs of a Cuckoo — ^pure white, sparingly 
spotted with fine specks of brown, very like, yet distinguishable in shape and 
lustre from the eggs of the Honey-eater. Such an egg has been attributed to 
Cacomantis castaneiventris, a bird never seen out of the scrub and never by any 
chance in the mangrove or tea-tree swamps, where these eggs found were. On 
this evidence it is fair to assume that the eggs found in the nests of Glyciphila 
modesta are those of this smaller form of C. variolosus. This type of egg was 
also found in a nest of Ptilotis analoga in scrub, and also in a nest of Malurus 
amahilis. At the Jardine River a young Cuckoo was obtained as a specimen, 
which, though differing remarkably from the adult bird, was probably the 
young of C. variolosus. It was being fed by a pair of Glyciphila modesta and 
was taken in tea- tree country. On one occasion two of these Honey-eaters 
were noticed chasing a Square-tailed Cuckoo out of a swamp where they had 
their nest. Although these Cuckoos were so numerous, no eggs were found 
which bore the least resemblance to the eggs of the Square-tailed Cuckoo of 
more southern latitudes. A male of this northern form measures in the flesh 
8| inches ; irides reddish-brown, eyelids pale greenish-grey, upper mandible 
blackish-brown, lower a shade lighter ; legs pale ohve, soles of feet yellow. 
Stomach contents, hairy caterpillars, beetles and other insects.” 
Mr. Edwin Ashby wrote me : “I have a skin that was obtained at 
Ourimbah, New South Wales, but with the exception of an immature bird 
which I shot at Torrington, New South Wales, on April 8, 1910, I have never 
met with this Cuckoo.” 
I have not quoted many of the notes, but here give one by Mr. J. A. Ross 
from the Emu, Vol. XII., p. 280, 1913 : “ During the last four months of 1912 
Cuckoos were very numerous throughout Victoria, and from all quarters came 
the monotonous and melancholy calls of the different species. North of Lake 
Tyrrell, in the Mallee country, in September, Messrs. F. E. Howe, T. H. 
Tregellas and I noticed the Palhd {Cuculus pallidus). Fan-tailed {Cacormntis 
flabelliformis). Bronze {Chalcococcyx plagosus). Narrow-billed Bronze {C. basalis), 
and Black-eared {Mesocalius palliolatus) Cuckoos, and saw an egg of the Fan- 
tailed species in a nest of the Chestnut-rumped Ground-Wren {Hylacola pyrrho- 
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