THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
C. lucidus. Also “ Whether Cuculus plagosus should be considered a subspecies 
of Cuculus lucidus or not, is a question I am at the moment unable to answer.” 
I am still unable to determine the affinities of the forms, though Brasil {Revue 
Francaise d’Ornith., 7® An., p. 204, 1916), dealing with the New Caledonian form, 
agreed with my separation, but recorded it as a subspecies of lucidus. This 
seems a very bad solution, as many other species seem more closely related 
to lucidus than layardi appears to be. 
However we cannot dogmatise on these points, as North stated he had 
seen three specimens from Australia, one collected at Cape York, and the other 
two, both adult females, from the neighbourhood of Sydney. 
In the EmUf Vol. X., p. 197, 1910, Campbell and White recorded from the 
Capricorn Group : “ Broad-billed Bronze Cuckoo {Chalcococcyx lucidus). Several 
beautiful Bronze Cuckoos, in uniform metallic-green upper plumage, were 
observed, and specimens secured. These birds were exceedingly tame, catching 
insect prey near our camps. By dress and song it is not the Bronze Cuckoo 
{G. plagosus) of southern parts, but is nearest in description to the New Zealand 
Shining Cuckoo {G. lucidus). In this opinion Mr. A. W. Milligan and other 
experts share. The winter home of the New Zealand species is supposed to be 
Northern Queensland and New Guinea ; if that be so the Capricorns would be 
within the fly-line, while October is about the time these Cuckoos reach New 
Zealand. The finding of these birds at the Capricorns is one of the interesting 
features of the expedition of the R.A.O.U.” 
In 1912 I wrote : “ Through the kindness of Capt. S. A. White I have been 
enabled to examine one of the specimens then obtained, and there can be no 
doubt it is a genuine C. lucidus. I have another specimen with only Queensland 
as the locality, and these two are the only true C. lucidus I have seen from 
localities outside New Zealand.” 
I received a series from Mr. Roy Bell collected at Lord Howe Island, and 
these prove very puzzling, as, though the males are quite hke the males of lucidus^ 
the females differ and are more hke plagosus, while the bill is more like that of 
the first named rather than of the latter. They breed on that island, and the 
Capricorn birds were procured in October, which is late, as Fulton records the 
first week of September as the time they are first heard, and that they probably 
arrive in the colony some time before that. 
The species was added to the Australian Avifauna by Hall in his 
“ Key ” in 1899, taking the records given in the Catalogue of the Birds in the 
British Museum, Vol. XIX., p. 296, 1891, one specimen from the Gould 
collection marked “Australia” and three from the Cockerell Collection 
labelled (incorrectly) Cape York. 
I distinguished the Australian killed specimen as follows : “ Lamprococcyx 
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