THE LONG-TAILED CUCKOO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2603, 3 February 1904, Page 29

THE LONG-TAILED CUCKOO.

Abstract of paper read on Monday, January 11, 1904- (Section D, Biology), at the Science Conference in Dunedin. —Habits of tile Long-tailed Cuckoo. — Dr Robert Fulton, M.8., CM.' (Edin.), read a very lengthy and exhaustive paper entitled "Notes on the Habits of the Longtailed 'Cuckoo, or Kohoporoa." After exhibiting a nest of the tomtit (Myiomoira macrocephala), which contained *he egg of the Long-tailed Cuckoo (Urodynamis taitensis), Dr Fulton referred to the very general opimion that the Grey Warbler (Gerygone flaviventris) is jie usual "host," - from the fact that this little bird is so frequently eeen feeding the young of this parasite. A eomparision between the Cuckoo and the nest of the Warbler throws doubt on this theory, and so far no one has ever found the young ibird in such a nest. There is no doubt that the egg of the Bronze Cuckoo is deposited in the nest of the Warbler, and hatched out l>y that bird, as numbers of instances are known of the young cuckoo being found filling the nest up to almost " bursting point." To attain this end the parent cuckoo, like cuckoos all the world over, probably lays the egg on the ground, and carries it in its bill until a nest suitable for the purpose is found, when the egg is gently dropped into it. The fact of cuckoos carrying their eggs in their bills is now universally admitted, and this has given rise to much of the accusations against them. The long-tailed cuckoo invariably chooses an open or cup-shaped, and not a domed or oovered-in nest, and the nest of the tomtit, exhibited, was a fair example of a nest of the former class. The commonest host in both South and North Islands is the native Canary Orthonyx, but the JTui, Mocker, Robin, White-eye, and some of the imported birds are also imposed on. Sets of eggs showing "protective mimicry" were exhibited, and differences in size and colouring of cuckoos' eggs of the same species explained, n Those contained in closed-in or domed nests, being in darkness, need no " protection," while those in open nests are spotted in such a way as to resemble the natural occupants of the nests. With regard to the habits of the cuckoo, Dr Fulton has received abundance of evidence as to its robbing propensities, though he is of opinion that this is a comparatively modern " failing," due to the prevalence of the nests of small imported birds in the trees on the edge of the bush, where tb.e cuckoo usually shelters. No instance has been recorded of a cuckoo robbing a native bird's nest, and the writer thinks this very unlikely. The evidence as to the migration of the long-tailed cuckoo was gone fully into. Mr Smith, of Lake Brunnor, says that they arrive in that neighbourhood about the first week in October and leavo about the middle of March. Hamilton records an instance of the "bird being seen in the P-etane Valley, Hawke Bay, the last week in March, and asks whether any evidence is to be had as to its wintering here. To this query I may say that a young one was seen at Queenstown in April, and its plaintive ory was hoard from day to day up till the sth May. Travers mentions an instance of one being shot at New Plymouth in Juno, and suggests that come spend the winter with us. Buller thinks this unlikely, save on very rare occasions, but commenting on the good condition of this bird expresses himself as astonished at the need for migration when there is evidently in New Zealand abundance of winter *ood for the cuckoo. That the birds migrate here for breeding purposes alone, and not for food, which must be ample in the tropical islands of the Pacific is now quite certain. Cheese'Bian, quoting Bell, of the Kermadecs, says that the birds are annual visitants there, though by no means common, but in a subsequent volume of the Transactions quotes from the same informant that the bird is a permanent resident of that island. Kirk etates that both the long-tailed and shining cuckoos may occasionally be seen in New Zealand all through the winter seasons. Sandager states tßat two wintered at Mokohinou in _ 1888. There is little doubt that the birds reported to me this year from Cape Palliser had wintered near there, visited the neighbourhood of the iighthouse, stayed for a few weeks, and then left for their breeding haunt? in the south. A correspondent from the Bay .of Plenty tells me that he has known of their having been seen in the bush there in the winter time. Mr M'Lean, of Te Tua, Southland, assures me that one was repeatedly heard there all through the winter of 1903, and that he had never known of Buch a thing before. They are to be found on the Chatham Islands and the Auckland Islands. That it was known to the early colonists to appear" annually, and as regularly to lisappear, is shown •by the startling statement made by the Rev. Mr Taylor in his book "Te Ika a Maui," for he says^ "The long-tailed cuckoo in the autumn buries itself in the mud of the river beds, and there hibernates till the following spring." In the Rev. William Yate's account of New Zealand, published in 1835, he says: "This biro., •which is remarkable for its long body and short cook's •beak, is one of the sweetest songsters of the woods, but it is only seen or heard for about four months in the height of summer. It eecures itself during the winter months in holes of the Puriri tree, and does not leave its retreat till all danger of ite being overtaken with cold has passed away. The Natives say that always when the wind is about to blow from the south the kohoporoa ceases its song, and does not commence again until the west wind blows, or a. breeze springs up in the north." According to Mr Elsdon Best, the Uriwera Natives says : "These birds disappear into the earth in autumn and come forth during the epring. We do not see them appear from the earth, but such was told us by our elders. Perhaps they retire to caves. They do not eat berries, but lizards, etc. There is no sign of the coming of this bird »is a wind or any other 'tohu,' nothing but its cry— that is the only sign. We take the • Ivoekoea for the sake of its kotare >r tail feathers, which we prize as plumes for head ornaments." . . Air Taylor says the natives yah it kaweka'wea," and "he piri^rewa," the "flying lizard" or "tree lizard." The name kawekawea may nave been foimed from the word "kaweau, which neons a large lizard; or from a mere mis- " clling of the word koekoea, which has an utirelv different origin. "ir Treaear says: "The Natives have a fancy that the bud loses its fathers at the approach of win ter hrtaruatinz in holes ia the ground. Its featlus*

begin +0 grow a? spring advances, its tail drops oft", and it again becomes a bird. In its lizard form it is called 'gnaha' at Taupo and Wanganui. To the Native mind the g-reen lizard is 'moko kakariki,' a \ery fea-i-nome creature, from its spiritual influences, and is the incarnation of a god. It is born from the eholls left in the neat of the kakariki or green paroquet after the young birds are hatched out ; but the cuckoo ia the child of a lizard that is mottled or Gpeckled, aud the name of this lizard is moko-tapiri, or ngarara-papa, or mokopapa."

The name Tcawekawea may thus have arisen from the idea that the bird turns into a lizard, or that it is called the tree lizard, from the peculiar mottled markings on the feathers, or that it appears about the time that the lizard casts its skin, which is similarly mottled.

The name "koekoea" is possibly formed from the word "koe," which means to scream, and means "the screamer," the word "koe" being evidently formed from the squeak 01 scream of any bird on being captured. Ifc may have been applied to this particular bird from the peculiar grating whistle or whizzing sound that it makes. "Oe oe," in the Hawaian language, means "to grate or whiz."

Koekoea, although so near in sound to the Old Dutch koekoek and the English cuckow, has no onomatopoeic reference to the actual call of this bird, which at no time approaches the soft cooing of the Old World cuckoo. This onomatopoeia is, howover, well seen in many Maori words, a<* in kuku, the wood pigeon, Carpophaga New Zealand, which makes a soft cooing sound ; the high shrill call of the kea (Nestor occidental^), the harshly-screaming kaka (Nestor meridionalis), and the eweetlywhistling pio pio, or native Thrush. The name koekoea is used by the Uriwera Natives for "wanderers," or (people who ever roam about, having no settled place of abode, and that the Maori recognises tho significance of the parasitio habit oi both cuckoos is evident from many of his sayings or proverbs ; "Penei me te pipiwharauroa" — "You are like the shining cuckoo" (in your actions, that is, you aro no good, you desert your children).

Again, "Te paxahika te koekoea," a term used for a desertec 1 child, me^ans the "offspring of the cuckoo." "E kua rite koe ki te koekoea," "You ar=> exactly like the cuckoo" — that is, "you arc a lazy fellow like the koekoea," you let other people feed you ; a term of reproach used for an idle vagabond who "sponges" on others for his food. Referring to the hibernating of the bird, they say, "Ko enei manu c rua, ka hou ki roto i te whenua noho ai i te ngahuru" — "These two birds dig their way inside the earth (under the soil) in the autumn." The following is a whakta-takiri, or child's song, sung to an infant in arms: — E:o te urf au i te whenakonako, I te koekoea, E riro nei ma te tataihore c whangai. "I am the offspring of the bronze cuckoo, of the long-taiied cuckoo, left hea - e for the 'white-headed' cauiary to feed." Another and commoner name for the bird is kohoporoa, or koehoperoa. The latter is, I believe, the correct spelling, thoiigh the vowels are often variously transposed, and ia vory probably formed from the words "koe," "hope," "roa," meaning "the long tail " Miss Sinclair, iv her book of poeme entitled "The Huia's Homeland," speaks thus of the cuckoos: — "Hearken, friends, to this quaint idyll from the love lore of the Maori, fiom the ancient native records, of the Rotorua beauty, of the beautiful wahine. " Hinemoa heard the birds sing in the bush all dark and dewy, Heard the shining cuckoo's welcome to the t-ender flowers of springtime, • Pretty Pipiwharaauroa, fostered by Te Riroriro. Heard the loiig-tailed swallow also, heard Te ILoehoporoa, In the winter time a lizard, in the summer time a. swallow." Sir Walter Buller tells us that, finding the* birds arriving at the same time as the crane flies, the Maoris say: "They come with the mosquitos," and also from time immemorial have called them "birds of Hawaiki." These facts, adds Sir Walter, "seem to indicate that they annually come from the warm islands of the Pacific. '"In his essay in the first volume of our Transactions he says that they appear earlier at the extreme north, and to linger there when their notes are no longer heard in the couth. Like the cuckoos in other parts of the world, they appear before rainyweather or coincident with it, and have thus come to be known in many widely-diffe-rent localities as "ra ; ai" birds and "storm" birds. In many parts of Otago and Canterbury they were called by the early settlers "potato" birds, as they invariably came on the scene as the potato-planting was going on ; similarly, in the North Island they got the name of "kumara" birds. When the suggestion that they com© all tre way from the Pacific Islands wae first made by New Zealand ornithologists, the statement was questioned by Mr A. R. Wallace in the following words: — "Resident ornithologists believe that the two New Zealand cuckoos migrate annually, the one from Australia and the other from some part of Polynesia, distances of more than a thousand miles. These facts seem to have been accepted without sufficient evidence, and to be in themselves extremely improbable. It is observed that the cuckoos appear annually in certain districts, and again to disappear ; but their course does not seem to have been traced, still less have they been seen arriving or departing across the ocean. In a large and practically unexplored country there is really no reason why the birds should not recede from one end of the islands to the other." From observations made in the last 20 years it ie now certain that they do come from the South Sea Islands annually, and retu-n there, after breeding in New Zealand. How they persistently escape observation seems to me to be extraordinary, for I can find no instauce of any person ha-wnjr witnessed the arrival of the bird from ever the sea, as was reported of the sHr.ing cuckoo by Mr Potts, and it is curious that no one seems to have found the bird on the sea shore. I have recently communicated with a number of the light-house-keepers on our coastline, and have gathered some interesting information on tnib subject. The earliest intimation of the appearance of the bird this season comes from Mr John Duthie, at Cape Palliser, who cays that tLo first cuckoo arrived on the 6th of June, and six or seven a few days later. They hui;£t about the lighthouse for six or eight

v/oeks, and then suddenly disappeared the fi'-st M'euk in August. Mr Haosen, from Pencarrow Head LightliCuse, reported that one morning in the first wct-k ot September, exact day uncertain, when coming from the tower afterpiittmg out the light at 6.30 a.m., he saw a long tailed cuckoo. The bird was flying low and swiftly, just skimming the topa of the tawhina scrub. They have been seen at Doubtless Bay, at Stephen's Inland Lighthouse, on the Kermadecs, and at Akaroa, about th© middle of the samo nicnth. At Mokohinou Lighthouse Mr Sandager caught several on the lan*ern at myht in October, and Mr Elsdon Best reported a young one at Rua Tahuna on th<-> lGth of that month. Mt M'Neill saw the birds at Cape Campbell Lighthouse in thick, dirty weather at night in October; they have been frequently seen at Cape Farewell Lighthouse ; East Takaha, Nelson ; Queen Charlotte Sound ; Sumner and New Brighton ; Waikouaiti, Otago ; Riverton and Te Tua, Southland, in the second weefc in October ; and I myself saw the bird on the 20th and 25th October in the bueh at Newington. Dunedin. Reischek found them •.jn the Barriers in November ; and Mr liyeif, of Stirling, Otago, who has for years inoted their arrival carefully, finds that they invariably come to that locality from the sth to t!-c 7th November. That they keep on arriving from the north-east until about tne end of November is shown by the fact of cne being caught on the lighthouse at Capo Maria Van Dieman at 5 in the afternoon of the 28th of that month. There was a strong Easterly gale blowing at the time, and the barometer registered 29.83, the thermometer 63deg. Fahr. The bird was exhausted and quiet, but its plumage was fresh and not in any way draggled or weather-beaten. I have only noted the dates on which the birds were actually oeon. I have numbers of references of its having been heard on various dates, from the 3ra September at Queonstown, the 4th at Wl'Hon, the 13th at Akaroa, the 28th at To Kvmi., onwards to the end of October at \ v aiau, Southland, and elsewhere, but as il'oie is a possible doubt as to the accuracy ci some of theue reports, I have relied on eye-witnesses alone. I heard what I too'v to be the call of the cuckoo iii tho gum. trees opposite the University at 9 p n. on th© 19th October, and saw the bird next niorning for the first time this season. Numerous other notes as to its arrival can be found in the page? of the Trrnsactions of the New Zealand Institute, and they -all point to the advent of tliia mysterious bird from the north-east, probably in small parties and generally at night. I do not think it is yet clear that they always come gradually along the islands from the extreme north, for they arrive suddenl3' at points so widely separated from each other that it is hard to account tor this other thnn by the assumption that they come down in streams from the north-cast, and hit the coast line of New Zealand at various places at about the same time.

Mr Witherby says: "On bright nights i.ndoubtedly most migrating birds fly at a great height, and pass over the lighthouses without being attracted by the light. It :e on dark, and especially misty, nights that they come nearer to the earth and dash themselves against the lanterns. Birds run great and varied risks during their migration, and much mortality is the result. At the end of a long flight across the ocean they often encounter bad weather and heavy adverse winds, and many on such occasipns become co fatigued that they never reach the land.

The kohoporoa, haiing accomplished its spring migration, is fairly plentiful in most parts of the southern portion of the South Island in October, and it may be noted that tho first arrivals sit about among the trees, or fly from tree to tree, but are silent. Some say that this is due to the fact that they are all of the male sex, and the same observation ha« been made about the first arrivals of the Pallid Cuckoo in the southern parts of Australia. Nearly a century ago Colonel Montagu remarked that in the spriuig male Nightingales always arrived in England before the female, and since that time many obser■vatiens have confirmed this statement concerning the nightingale and .nany other biids. Herr Gatke has gone beyond this, aud affirms that the forerunners of the spring migrat'on^to the north are invariably old males; nexfXeome- tho females, then younger males and females, and finally only birds of the previous year. Supposing these evekoos all start about the same time, it is conceivable that during the longest journf.y they would tail out, and the strongest birds, visually the males, would gradually obtain a lead.

Jn November the birds become active, and begin to utter their harsh, grating whiz-z-z-z-z-t. This grating whistle is no doubt the call between the sexes, and is uttered, it i« probable, by the male alone. I am of opinion that in those cases where birds aro heard calling from tree to tree and apparently answering each other the calls are really those of several males, but of this point I should like positive e\ idence. The birds keep to the tops of the tall pines one! creeper-covered trees in the daytime, raid are often hard to locate, and it is extremoly difficult to decide whether a particular tree is the hiding plaw. This is for two reason o—one.0 — one. that the bird, like its follow migrant, the shining cuckoo, is endowed with what Sir Walter Buller calls "vcntriloquistio powers" — that is, of increasing the volume of its notes from a very quiet call to a loud, piercing succession of counds, which performance product* exactly the impression that the bird 15 at first a long way off, and then gradually approaches the listener. When, one has fairly decided that tho bird is in a certain tree it is very hard to detect it with the eye, for the kohoporoa has the habit of freciuently perching along instead of across the branch, a method of concealment easy of performance to a bird wi + h the tharacteristio zysrodaetyl feet of tin's family It likes the thickly-foliaged English trees which ctand we'll out from tho native bush — ■ Macrocarpas, Firs, Pinus insignii — trees which are seldom frequented by our indigenous birds, and never inhabited by them. In this way the cuckoo escapes a good deal of the incessant harrying which ho used to undergo, and, besides this, these trees aro especially suited to his peculiar modern appetite, as, in addition to the myriads of insects which infest them, sparrows, linnets, and greenfinches build their nests there in great numbers. From the shelter of these masses of foliage, the kohoporoa sends forth his extraordinary call. which is loud, penetrating, and very frequent during the early morning and forenoon, (getting gradually quieter, uttered at loneex iuterviUs, «uadi .bopnining. jiar.v

drowsy ?.nd low es noon approaches. It new ceases, and the bird probably sleeps for a f©*<v hour's. It is again uttered as evening app; oache'-s, tnd the cuckoo becomes active at>d restless, getting ready to leavo ite -street The peculiar call is heard all through .he eummet nights, and is mistaken by many persons for the cry of the smaller Owl or morepork. The cry of the latter, however, is quite distinct, being a weird puvring sound, much more distuibing to the belated wayfarer who passes through tho dense bueh than the not unpleasant notes of the cuckoo. On the othpr hand, a number of people mistake the thin, grating whistle of the Greem Linnet for the call of the kohoporoa, but this also can bo readily distinguished, as it is not nearly so loud, nor has it the ascending series of notes of the latter bird. Some-times, when the cuckoo is chased by the tui, he will settle along a good-sized bough and, turning towards his pursuers, make a curious defiant, crowing sound. Anj it has yefc another cry, difficult to describe, which is only heard at night, when thebircl is flying low among the trees. Thie is a queer sort of rattling noise, something between the curious chuckle of the kaka ami a very quick clucking of a hen.

The moment our cuckoo shows itself in the daytime it is pounced upon by all the small fry in the way of native birde, who pursue and torment it, until it reaches thecafety of long grass or ihicket once more. It flies with a peculiar 6wooping movement at times, and by some observers is credited with strong volant powers, but as it is only seen on tho wing for a few seconds at a time, little is at present known of this. The flight is peculiar, with a very rapid motion of the wings, and Mr Potts says that "it flies but a short distance at a time, and in tho young bird the flight is awkward. The Bird alights heavily on the ground, turning each time it settles no that it faces the direction from whence it flew.'' This - s a curious habit: can anyone suggest an explanation? Can it in any way bo an indication 'n the young bird of turning- toward or against tho wind, and Joes it afford any clue towards the elucidation of the migratory instinct?

Is it, on the other hand, an indication in the young bird of an instinctive turning to fact its enemy, a feeling that the instant it alights it should turn ite face to its foes? Is this the same instinct which causes the bird when it perches on a branch to immediately turn sideways along it, partly to assist in concealment, but also, perhaps, to get another bough alongside of it, leaving only one side visible and unprotected?

In watching the bird this year in the Newington bush I have been struck with its pigeon-lik© aspect. On leaving a tree it first falls, with little wing motion, but more of a swoop, to about 20ft from the ground, and then with a very rapid, regular motion of the wings proceeds with incredible speed throi.gh the air. Suddenly, with the least little "cant" to one side and slight spreading, fanwise, of the tail, it turns in an instant at right angles to its original cotirse, and is off like an arrow in the new direction, with its long tail streaming out behind it ; the'i, with another quick swoop upwards, reaches its perching place, where, just as it settles with a- little flutter, its tail is again slightly fanned. I have the excellent authority of Mr Elsdon Best for Faying that when the cuckoo ie struck at by the tui ho instantly turns over, doubles back, and thus escapee. This, hie Maori informant says, is never soen save when the cuckoo is attacked *n the air by the tui. The samo Native says that he has seen as many as five cuckoos flying slowly In a line, one after another, each one a little higher than the one just preceding it. These birds , were ovidently migrating, and Mr Arthur, of Lawrence, gives the same curious piece of information : "I have seen them high in the air, as if arriving or leaving for long flight. The flight ia not nearly so fast then, the wings not being moved so quickly as when amongst trees."

Our kohoporoa, being eenii-nooturnal, like the cuckoo -elsewhere, is noiseless in ics flight, and this is, no doubt, the main reaeon for the success the female achieves in getting her eggs into the nests of other birds So far as I can find, no one lias been fortunate enough to witness thie, though it is undoubted that it must take place- during the daytime, when the builders are absent or have been driven from the nest Many eggs must be lost in the atieir.pt> at deposition, a large number probably swallowed or brokei by their :>wners, others dropped on the ground. From what 1 hear of strange e,jgs in imported birds' nests, it is likely that the cuckoo is now beginning to mate use of them as homes for her young, though the robin, canary, and tomtit— less frequently the tui and mocker — are the Lest-known sufferers. The following is a list of reputed foster parent* and of birds which have been seen feeding the cuckoo, with name of observer: Gerygone flaviventris. Egg not described, taken from nest.— W. "W. Smith. Gerygone flaviventris. Bird seen feeding young "cuckoo. — Buller and otheis. Myiomoira albifrons. "A lound egg, deeper in colour than the one in the Christchurch Museum." From this egg hatched out m due course the long-tailed cuckoo.— Smith. Myiomoira albifrons. Young bhd seen, fed by the robin.— R. Eiddle. Myiomoira macrocephala. Bird seen feeding cuckoo— H. Robmson, Akaroa Myiomoira marcrocephala. Egg reddish purple, etc., vide ante.— John Ross's assistants, W. Mill'ai and A. Pittaway. Orthonyx albicilla. Bird seen feeding young supposed to bo that of Glaucopis cmerea. Butler's Maori informant. Orthonyx albicilla. Cuckoo 111 nest, and fed along with young canaries.— Elsdon Best s Maoii infoimant.

I Or'.hoviVY acToo^phala. Young truckou form.'l 't*. the'ii'sl. -R Riddle, Orepuk:. Cdrpophaga Nbvse Zealandiss. Birds se°n iced.- ; ing f uliy-fledgpd -^koo - -R. Riddle. SOi Unparus Novas Z£a.!a.ad.se Birds ser-tf reediig yojng cuckoo.- R Riddle. Pro.sihemadera Novae Zealandise. vWkato No/ t:ve3 , no details given P o^.hemadera Novia Zealandis* Tui 3-k»p feeding young r\ickoo.- A Reynolds Anthornis melanura Cuckoo soen sitting on : nest.- -Crawford Anderson. Zosterops lateralis. A long egg- cf a clarh colour, tapering to one end, about an inch and a-qnartei- ir length. Cuckoo seen coming out of the tree. - iTLean. Brown linnet. Cuckoo seen on nest. Egg I identical in size and colouring with thai I shown here. — Jules Tapper, Waiau. In November and December the bird Iz laying, and young ouckoos appear in Janus' ry uncl February. It is probable that they lay well on in tho reason, as I have heard thee calling loudly in the Dunedin Town Belt as late as February 12. Professor Benham saw some making a disturbance in I the top of some Pinus msignis in the RangiI tata district in February of last year, and I Paw ceveral disporting themselves in the garden of the late Mr Robert Gillies on. February 7, 1897. Captain Mair tell us that he has seen them in flocks on the Hurukaureo Rivei in February, and this is another point Jeserving of attention, which 1 shall refer to latei on - The cuckoo at Milford Sound seems to have laid as late as the middle of January, and> giving a month or cix weeks, the nearly adult birds would appear about March. The young, being distinctly spotted ] ca the back, are readily distinguished from me adult About February or March they begin to disappear from Otago, come receding gradually north, others probably leaving ' direct," the young ones remaining last. Mr M'Lean. of Te Tua, says : "Several \e-d)s ago, some time* in February, I saw 1 i number of them- there must have been 1 over a dozen — assemble on some trees near. Orepttki one morning. This was the firofc time I had ever seen 6tich a thing. I was pasting at the time, and when I returned they weie gone, in what direction I do not know, but as I did not see any more that season I presume they were preparing to migrate.'* Mr Tapper, of Waiau, in March, 1902, saw as many as nine or ten, ouckooe in the gum trees near, his house, within a distal cc of 20 yards, and they were making a great noise among themselves. Mr Byer=, of Stirling, informs me that "one morning in early February I saw six rnekoos all on one tree together. They were making a givat noise — not their usual long-drawn out chirp, but a twittering call. My impression was that they were mustering their forces foi migration." From this it will be seen that they do not always recede gradually northwards, but are often seen assembling in flocks, and suddenly : disappearing, and I am of opinion that in many cases they -start off. on their return, journey dlieet fro.n any one point in N<?w Zealand, and that when once they have j arisen into the air they probably do not j alight until they have reached their tropical I home.

According to I'ravers, but I can find no details of their arrival or departure therefrom ; in New Caledonia in March and! April ; and the Solomon Islands in April and May ; and, as Captain Hutton says, the evidence is strong that they leave New Zealand in the autumn and travel noith-wTe-it to the tropical inlands of .he> Pacific. Finsch and Hartlaub give Fiji, Marquesas Islands, Tonga, Samoa, Cook Inlands, .and New Zealand as their habitat, and we oan now accept as certain that the^se birds, whioh are often, referred to as being feeble in wing power, twice annually perform the extraordinary feat of flying through the air for a distance of over 1000 miles before obtaining rest for their weary pinions. The morft important part of the paper - namely, a suggestion as to the reasons which have led up to this extrac-dina -v habit of imposing eggs upon othei birds by cuckoos— was them pu J forward Othpr paiasitic birds known, to science are the Molothrus, or Cowbird, of America ; the Cassidix, or Rice. Grackle, of South America; and the Indicator, or Honey Guide, of South Africa, and among these species are to be found all the stagp.fi between true ne^t-building and true parasitism. The generally accepted idea is that set ret by Darwin, that^ tho occasional laying of an egg in another bird s nest may reduce the work of tending a veiy large brood, and be of service to tho parent m enabling her to migrate earlier, and afc the same timo the mistaken instinct of the host may make the young more vigorous than if fed by it? true parent, and thus, prove of advantage. That the eggs are laid at considerable intervals' of time wai. thought by Darwin to have increased the difficulty of self-hatching and to have* helped to advance the onset of parasitism. On carefully looking into the habits of all of these parasites the most important point that strikes one is the universal prevalence of promiscuous breeding and polyandry — that is, of the occurrence of small flocks of five or six cock birds and only one hen. What is the cause of this preponderance of males is the key to the mystery. The only reason the writer can find is the fact that during migration the strongest birds, usually the males, obtain a lead, and aro known always to arrive first m any one locality. Male cuckoos, silent for day? or weeks, aro ssen m Australia and cl c ewhere, and it is only on the arrival of the females that they begin their calling. That there are non-migrating parasitic cuckoos iv India and many nonparasitic migrants everywhere make it certain that there are other causes as well foi this preponderance of males, but that migration is one of them seems feasible. Now, taking these birds with their peculiar habit,

of breeding, th-ere is no pairing in the true Bense of the word, though it is undoubted ifctat the assistance of both male and female as necessary in the construction of a nest. fWallace tells us that the male bird of a pair, pften a young one, may learn frcm his mate, .■who has had previous experience of nestbuilding', and, vice versa, a young female i 3 toften lielped by an old male b;rd and a .Very neat nest constructed. On the other band, a pair of young birds, new to the Business, often construct a very poor habitation indeed. The female cuckoo at cowbird, whose companions roam about the bush, has no mate to help her, her feet and ,fcill are ill-adapted for nest construction, bo she is either content with a few poor sticks on which she lays her eggs or els-e elie drops them on-© by on-e into the nests *>£ other birds. In order to make this the more easily effected she has acquired the faculty of irregular egg-laying, so that her chicks are hatched out at intervals of eaveral — days, a habit also seen in our native harrier, (Circus Gouldi) and in our Bhags (Phalacrocorax). The reasons why this is of immense benefit to both parent and chick were gone into at some length, and a general summing up was then given as folsaws: — Male cuckoos and cowbirds are al,ways in the majority, especially at the beginning of the breeding season, and, for sreasons before mentioned, this may be partially due to the long flight of migration. STromlaek of domestic habits and assistance 'pf the male bird, the female lias not acquired the faculty of neSt-building, save in a very rude, flimsy form, or in a great combined clumsy structure in which a num■foer of females lay. Cowbirds and cuckoos fihow all the stages between true nest-build-ing and parasitism. Some of the American cuckoos and cowbirds and our own and the Old World cuckoos, having probably passed *he stages of nesting in common and_^ of 'tte'positing their eggs in common " boardihg"ihauses," but, retaining the habit of irregular rjfvipositing, find it expedient, in order to be ready for the return autumn migration, to drop their eggs one by one into the nests ©f other birds. •

I am de&ply indebted to the editors of the Otago Daily Times, of the Otago fWitaees, and of the Southland Times, who so lindly and courteously brought me in touch ■with numerous valued correspondents in the' country, and to the latter im particular, ■whoso interesting letters are- duly moted in any list of references, ray deepest gratitude is due. With their kind help I have done any best to place on record all that is at present known of that interesting bird, the Long-tailed Cuckoo jf New Zealand.