KOEL. 
where their peculiar loud ‘ coo-ee ’ call could be heard at intervals throughout 
the day and late into the night. In that district they are locally known as 
the Christmas-bird, owing to their arrival about that period, ‘ so I was 
informed ’ ; however, upon my last visit to that locality on October 26th, 1912, 
these birds were there then, and their hves appeared to be made quite miserable 
by tlie Friar-birds chasing them whenever they saw them ; they gave them, 
very little peace. I have their eggs in my collection witli eight species of 
foster-parents, and from the following dates upon which these eight sets were 
taken, they appear to be late breeders : November 6, 1909, November 21, 1909, 
November 29, 1910, December 7, 1908, December 28, 1909, January 4, 1905, 
January 5, 1911, and Februarj^ 4, 1914.” 
Bemey in the Emu, Vol. II., p. 211, 1903, wrote: “ I have only come across 
the Koel about Homestead [on the Campaspe Diver, Queensland], where it 
was fairly common during the summer of 1900 and 1901. I first heard its 
loud, clear, indescribable call on 22nd December, and my latest date is 14th 
March. The birds confined themselves to the timber along the river and 
creeks, never in my experience being seen out on the ironbark ridges. During 
January the}^ were living on the hard, green, unripe fruit of a wild fig that 
grew on the river’s bank.” From the Dichmond district he added {Emu, Vol. IV., 
p. 46, 1904) : “ The Koel is a rare bird on this part of the Flinders River, 
being but seldom heard ; its cry, ‘ co’ey, co’ey, co’ey, co’ey, co’ey ’ uttered 
most monotonously and finished off now and again with ‘ wo wo wo wo wo wo,’ 
is so strange and striking that it could not be passed over without being 
noticed. In 1902 I first heard in on 17th December, and in 1903 on 27th 
November. The month of January is my last date. Mr. Smedley writes me 
from Homestead that the Koels had all left that district by 18th May, 1903, 
and did not show up again till 26th August the same year.” 
Captain S. A. Wliite has written me : “ Have met with Koels in nearly 
every locality I have visited along the Queensland coast-line, also along the 
New South Wales coast as far down as the Hunter River. I took a male on the 
Capricorn Group (Tr5''on Island) and saw a female. This is a very noisy bird 
at certain times of the year, and I met with them in great numbers on Mount 
Tambourine, Queensland.” ^ 
Mr. Edwin Ashby states : “I have never shot this bird, although I saw it 
in the Mallanganee district. New South Wales, in November 1912. I received 
a beautiful male form Port Keats, in the Northern Territory, sent me by 
Mr. C. E. May.” 
Apparent^ a bird was seen in Victoria on May 13, 1908, and recorded by 
E. J. Christian, but it is a northern species and he ascribed its southern 
appearance to the long drought. 
373 
