The Cuckoos : The Shining Cuckoo 
111 
of her leaving with a pipit’s egg in her beak, and of a young 
cuckoo turning out eggs and young. It takes twelve or 
thirteen days for the egg of the cuckoo to hatch, and in three 
weeks the chick is able to take care of itself. When sitting in 
the tree watching, and before laying, the female utters a 
peculiar bubbling note; it is the male that cries “cuckoo.” 
The observations by Mr. Chance throw a flood of light on 
this subject, that was so puzzling, and New Zealand observers 
will now have something more definite to go on in watching our 
own cuckoos. No doubt the habits of our two cuckoos are 
similar. There is much to learn of those habits; our ignorance 
is disquietingly amazing; and opportunity becomes less and 
less as years go on and the Maori bush becomes more and 
more restricted in area. 
There must be some fascination about a young cuckoo, for 
the pipiwharauroa sitting on a branch crying for food, as it 
does incessantly, will be fed not only by the warblers who 
hatched it, but by any tui, makomako, warbler, tom-tit, robin, 
brown creeper, canary, or blight-bird that may hear it, dis¬ 
playing a goodness of heart entirely different from that of the 
cuckoo. It may be, however, that in our ignorance we misjudge 
the young bird, as we misjudged its mother. 
In the comprehensive work on Australian birds that has 
been issuing, part by part, since 1910, Mathews writes (MB, 
Vol. 7, p. 353) in connection with the shining cuckoo, the pipi¬ 
wharauroa :....“ I make a suggestion here which may seem 
absurd, but may lead to good results. As no specimens in 
quantity which can be truly referred to lucidus have been met 
with outside New Zealand, the conclusion would be that it did 
not migrate from that Dominion, but that it remained there 
throughout the year. This means that the observers in New 
Zealand must recommence their studies and look for the 
species during the months it is silent. It is apparent from the 
records that its ‘arrival’ has been generally accepted by 
the hearing of its note, and its departure likewise credited to 
its silence. As birds have been met with later than usual, I 
now suggest that the Neo Zealandic cuckoo, known as Lampro- 
