COVER PICTURE (From a Water-Colour by the late Miss L. A. Daff) Shining Cuckoo (Pipiwharauroa)

Forest and Bird, Issue 107, 1 February 1953, Page 4

COVER PICTURE (From a Water-Colour by the late Miss L. A. Daff) Shining Cuckoo (Pipiwharauroa)

(Lamprococcyx lucidus}

IT has been definitely established' that the New Zealand shining cuckoo winters in the Solomon Islands. They commence to arrive in the Dominion from overseas in September and by November the little visitors are well distributed.

Their call bears no resemblance to that of the European bird. It has been rendered by the Maori words “kui, kui, kui, kui, whiu whitiora”. It has a certain ventriloquial quality that makes it difficult to detect the exact whereabouts of the singer. Their food consists of insects, notably such furry, caterpillars as are avoided by other birds. ,

As in Europe, the cuckoos build no nest, but leave the hatching of their eggs and the rearing of their young to other birds,

usually the little grey warbler (riroriro). The newly-hatched cuckoo throws out any rival eggs or young birds that may be in the nest, soon outgrows its cradle, and, leaving it a sad wreck, remains perched about in the neighbourhood, calling- plaintively for food, more, and more, and more ; and this is regularly supplied by the faithful foster-parents, and by other small birds, instinctively attracted by the hungry squeaker. Some of them remain dependent on foster-parents so long that they are not prepared for the sea journey to the northward in February or’ March. The migratory instinct is stimulated only at regular seasons, and the birds thus left remain here contented on adequate if reduced fare till the following autumn.