CHESTNUT-BREASTED CUCKOO. 
Immature male . — General colour of the upper-surface rust-brown including the top of the 
head, sides of the face, hind-neck, entire back, rump, upper tail-coverts, scapulars, 
and outer aspect of the wings ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and flight-quills dark 
bronze-green, the inner-webs of the last cream-white on the basal portion ; middle 
tail-feathers dark bronze-green margined with rufous, the latter colour increasing 
in extent on the outer feathers which are only mottled, or blotched with pale bronze- 
green ; lores, cheeks, throat, breast, abdomen, sides of body, under tail-coverts, 
axiUaries and under wing-coverts pale cinnamon-buff, paler on the under wing- 
coverts and under tail-coverts; base of flight-quills below cream-white, the 
remaining portion bronze-brown ; lower aspect of tail pale rufous, the central feathers 
bronze-green in the middle, the outer ones blotched with the same colour but rather 
paler. Eyes black ; bill black with lower mandible horn colour ; feet yellow. 
Collected at Cape York, North Queensland, on the 14th of July, 1916. This is the 
only immature bird of this species that I know of. (To be figured later.) 
Egg. Authenticated eggs not known. Eggs of the preceding species have been 
attributed to this bird in error. 
This beautiful Cuckoo has practically speaking little history, as it is rare 
and local. It was described from Cape York and has been recorded from 
New Guinea collections, but it is probable that several subspecies have been 
confused. 
Macgillivray {Emu, Vol. XIII., p. 163, 1914) has written : “ The Chestnut- 
breasted Cuckoo fi[nds its living in the thick tropical scrubs of the peninsula, 
and was not seen out of them, and never in the mangroves or tea-tree swamps. 
It is a beautiful bird, with its glossy dark slaty-blue upper-surface, rich chestnut 
underparts and bright yellow eyelids. It feeds on beetles and other insects. 
Its nesting habits require further elucidation. Mr. M‘Lennan is certain that 
the eggs found in the nests of Glyciphila modesta are not those of this Cuckoo. 
The only Cuckoo eggs, apart from those of C. russata, found in the scrub were 
those found in the nests of Ptilotis analoga and Malurus amahilis, and they are 
indistinguishable from those found in the nests of Glyciphila modesta, and 
Gacomantis variolosus is occasionally found in the scrub.” 
H. L. White {Emu,- Vol. XIV., p. 150, 1915) has given as foster-parents, 
Sericornis magnirostris and Neochmia phaeton. These are apparently the eggs 
which MacgiUivray is doubtful of, and the first seems to be part of the record 
by Le Souef {Ibis, 1899, p. 362). “ This bird I saw on many occasions on the 
Bloomfield River, near Cooktown, and often heard it uttering its mournful note 
during the night. I have also noticed it flying among the bushes, evidently 
hunting for nests. I never saw or heard the Fan-tailed Cuckoo {C. fiabelliformis) 
in the district. Mr. R. Hislop has sent me a clutch of eggs of Sericornis 
magnirostris, in which was deposited the egg of a Cuckoo, which I have little 
doubt was laid by C. castaneiventris.^’ 
This bird is probably very local, as Ogilvie-Grant {Ibis, Jubilee Supplement 
No. 2, December, 1915, p. 182) recording the species from the Setakwa and 
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