THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
the wing so that its metallic green back feathers show up, and should the bird 
be in the sunlight, the colour of its green back is most vivid, and appears like 
shot silk.” 
A. G. Campbell reporting on the Birds of King Island {Emu, Vol. II., 
p. 208, 1903) : “ It is noticed that the female Cuckoos are silent and very shy, 
while the males of the smaller species whistle during the nesting season at all 
times of the day, sometimes rivalling one another from adjacent tree tops.” 
Mr. Edwin Ashby has sent me the following notes : “In South Australia 
I have only obtained this lovely little Cuckoo {L. plagosus) in the higher part 
of the Adelaide Hills, though I have known of its olive eggs (so different from 
those of N. hasalis) being found as low down as the Blackwood district. I 
have three specimens before me, one from the Adelaide HiUs, which I shot in 
1888, one a male that was picked up dead in the grounds of the University of 
Sydney, and the other a female shot by myself at Bull, New South Wales, 
on October 6, 1915. All are uniformly barred right down to the tail-coverts 
inclusive. In the specimen from Sydney is a vivid green-bronze (if held between 
oneself and the light) over the whole of the upper side including central tail- 
feathers, and the barring of the underside is a similar hue. The other two 
specimens are a slightly less vivid green. In all three, the outer tail-feathers 
show no chestnut, and in the inner tail-feathers the chestnut coloration is 
confined to spots only. I see in my notes that the female obtained at Buli, 
N.S.W., had a brownish iris, while the Sydney specimen, which was a male, 
had a yellow eye.” 
Captain S. A. White has written me : “ This bird is not nearly as numerous 
as hasalis, while it has become quite a rare bird on the plains in late years, and 
I have never seen it in the interior. Its habits seem to be the same as those 
of the other.” Other correspondents, as Mr. A. G. Campbell, F. E. Howe, 
J. W. Mellor, have sent me short notes, but aU relating to the discovery of eggs 
and practically nothing about the bird itself. It appears to be accepted that 
its habits must be the same as those of other Bronze Cuckoos, and consequently 
I find little on record regarding these. 
I would again emphasise my view that each of the Australian Cuckoos 
should be independently studied as to its habits, respect also being paid to 
locality, and then, later, correlation of the recorded facts might be attempted. 
At the present time I would conclude that we really know little concerning 
the economics of these little Bronze Cuckoos, though there must be much of 
interest. 
Mr. Tom Carter observes : “ This Bronze Cuckoo {L. plagosus) was not 
noted by me in the mid-west, but appears to be resident, though not very 
numerously, in parts of the south-west. The following observations were 
358 
