LAMPROCOCCYX. 
247 
Dawson River, Richmond and Clarence Rivers Districts, New 
South Wales, Interior, Victoria and South Australia, Tasmania, 
West and South-west Australia. (Ramsay.) 
LAMPROCOCCYX BASALIS, Horsfield. 
Narrow-billed Bronze Cuckoo. 
Gould, HandbJc. Rds. Aust., Vol. i., sp. 385, p. 626. 
The range of this bird does not extend so far as that of L. 
plagosus, not being found in either Northern or Western Australia. 
Like the preceding species, it is one of the first harbingers of 
Spring, and takes its departure again about the middle of Autumn. 
It deposits its single egg in the nest of any of the smaller birds, 
the first I found being in the nest of Mcliornis novce-hollandice, 
and I have also at various times taken it from the nests of the 
following species :—Malurus cyaneus, Ephthianura albifrons, 
Zosterops caerulescens, Pet/rceca teggii, Estrelda temporalis, 
Geobasileus chrysorrhma, Smicrornis brevirostris, and Acanthiza 
lineata; it will be seen from the above, that this species evinces 
no decided preference for either those nests that are open or dome¬ 
shaped, but seems to bestow its favours pretty equally in the choice 
of a foster parent for its young. 
From a nest of Acanthiza nana, Dr. Ramsay in 1856 took no 
less than six eggs, three of them being Bronze Cuckoo’s, two of 
Lamprococcyx plagosus, and one of L. basalis. (See P.Z.S., 1865, 
p. 461). 
The egg of this species is pinky-white minutely freckled all over 
the surface with light brownish-red or pinkish-red dots and spots, 
in some instances these markings are confluent forming coalesced 
patches on the egg but on no particular portion of it, sometimes 
being on one side only, at other times on the end. The dimensions 
of six eggs are as follows:—length (A) Q-68 x 0‘48 inch ; (B) 0-76 
x 0-5 inch ; (C) 072 x 0'5 inch ; (D) 0'71 x 05 inch ; (E) 0-66 x 
047 inch ; (F) 068 x 048 inch. The colouring matter of the 
