THE BIRDS OP AUSTRALIA. 
Mr. J. P. Rogers’ notes made in the north-west at Parry’s Creek read : 
“ October 15, 1908. Late to-night (9-30 p.m.) I heard one of these birds 
whistling. It is the first heard since I landed. October 19, 1908. Saw several 
males of this species. They are skuUdng birds : when perched among thick 
brandies they creep about very quietly. This species is rare on the Pitzroy, 
as I never secured a single specimen there. Tliese are the first seen here this 
3^ear. October 30, 1908. One bird passed the camp at 11.30 p.m. whistling 
loudly. Next day a bird was whistling near my house in the morning and 
hurried round aU day. The attraction was a fig tree near the camp. November 13. 
These birds are not so numerous here now. March 18, 1909. One whistling on 
the creek to-day. April 16, 1909. None seen since March 18. They appear 
to move away in March and are only seen in the wet season.” 
MacgiUivray’s notes from North Queensland {Emu, Vol. XIII., p. 163, 1914) 
read : “ The Koel was first met with on the Cloncurry River early in February. 
One j^oung bird which was being fed by a pair of Yellow- throated Miners, and 
was obtained for a specimen, was, in its barred plumage, even more beautiful 
than the adult of either sex. In this bird the irides were fight stone colour, 
feet and legs lead-colour. Stomach contents, grasshoppers and beetles. In a 
young male the irides were orange, in adults ruby -scarlet.” 
The foster-parents of tliis Cuckoo, according to H. L. White {Emu, Vol. 
XIV., p. 154, 1915), are : “ Colluricindu harmonica, Orallina cyanoleuca, Melloria 
quoyi, Entomyzon cyanotis, Philemon argenticeps, Neophilemonhuccroides, Tropido- 
rhynchus cor7iiculatus, Microphilemon orientalis, Mimeta sagittata, Sphecotheres 
flaviventris, Dicruropsis hracteatus and Ptiloris paradiseaP 
Though given specific value in the Catalogue of the Birds in the British 
Museum, Vol. XIX., the Australian Koel has since been regarded as only 
subspecifically separable from the Moluccan species, and its distribution appears 
to confirm this rating. The males are almost inseparable in coloration and 
size, but subspecific characters can be seen in the females. The change from 
immature to adult male plumage is undertaken so gradually that a series can 
be procured showing birds in every stage from a few black feathers to almost 
all black, and they show peculiarly weU how moult takes place so very irregularly 
in tropical climes, birds showing difierent stages at the same date. 
The subspecies admitted are Eudynamys orientalis cyanocephalus, Queens- 
land, New South Wales, Victoria (accid.) 
Eudynamys orieiitalis suhcyanocephalus. Northern Territory, North-west 
Australia. 
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