THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Eyes red, eyelids red ; feet and tarsus leaden brown ; biU black, base cf lower mandible 
leaden-blue. Total length 145 mm. ; culmen 12, mng 100, tail 58, tarsus 14. 
Figured. Collected on Parry’s Creek, North-west Austraha, on December 17th, 1908. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male, but eyelids brown. 
Egg. Greenish -dive, Hghter in colour than the eggs of L. plagosus. 19-20 mm. by 12-13. 
Breeding-season. November and December. 
This, probably the most select of Australian Bronze Cuckoos, was described 
by Gould and figured in the Supplement ; he wrote in 1865 : “ Nothing further 
is known respecting this little Bronze Cuckoo than that it is a native of Port 
Essington, whence the only specimen I have j^et seen was sent. The example 
alluded to is fullj^ adult, and differs very considerably from every other species 
with which I am acquainted. It is one of the smallest species of the genus, 
yet it has as stout a bill as some of the larger kinds.” 
Nothing has yet been recorded of the habits of this species, and the confusion 
between this and the next species has proved verj^ perplexing. Apparently it 
had not been again met with until Rogers procured two males in 1908, just fifty 
j^ears after the type was secured. These I recorded in the Emu, Vol. IX., p. 59, 
1909, as Chalcococcyx malayanus, 'writing : “I have compared these birds with 
Gould’s t3rpe of C. minutillus, but fhid them more barred than that bird.” 
All its history is contained in its technical changes, which I summed up in 
the Austral Avian Record, Vol. I., p. 17, 1912, as follows : 
“ The little, and httle-known Austral-Malayan Bronze Cuckoos are very 
perplexing, and I have to differ in toto with North’s treatment of them. North 
recognises L. malayanus and in its sjuionym}/" includes L. minutillus Gould, and 
notes : ‘ Captain Shelley includes Gould’s types of Lamprococcyx russatus from 
Cape York under Gray’s name of L. poecilwus, but the only adult specimen in 
the Austrahan Museum collection from that locahty has the forehead and feathers 
over and behind the eye with distinctly whitish motthngs and is a typical 
L. malayanus. . . . Moreover, Lamprococcyx russatus, which Dr. Ramsay 
records from Cape York to Port Denison is, I am sure, only the young bird of 
L. malayanus. . . . Both specimens under this name in the Reference Collection 
are from Rockingham Bay, where Lamprococcyx malayanus is the common 
species.’ ” I then showed by reference to the original description that the name 
of malayanus was quite inapphcable to the group associated under that name 
by Shelley in the British Museum Catalogue. 
The only notes seem to be those sent me by Mr. J. P. Rogers from Melville 
Island. “ Cooper’s Camp, October 28th, 1911. First of this species seen to-day. 
November 2nd, 1911 : A second to-day. December 13th, 1911 : Several birds 
were heard calling before this date but was not sure of the call until to-day, 
when I shot one as it was calhng. December 20th, 1911 : Fairly common 
362 
