  Cuculus lucidus, Gmel. Edit. of Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 421.—Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. i. p. 215.—Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. ix. p. 126. pl. 26.—Temm. Pl. Col. 102. fig. 1.—Vig. & Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 301.—Vieill. 2nde Edit. du Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat., tom. viii. p. 233.—Ib. Ency. MÉth., tom. iii. p. 1335. pl. 219. fig. 1. Shining Cuckoo, Lath. Gen. Syn., vol. ii. p. 528. pl. 23.—Ib. Gen. Hist., vol. iii. p. 299. pl. lvi. Chalcites lucidus, Less. TraitÉ d’Orn., p. 153. Dj?u-reet, Aborigines of the lowland districts of Western Australia. Golden or Bronze Cuckoo of the Colonists. This species is very widely dispersed, being an inhabitant of every part of the Australian continent and Van Diemen’s Land. In the latter country it is strictly migratory, arriving in September and departing again in January. If it be not so truly migratory in New South Wales, the great mass certainly retire in winter to the northward, where insect food is more abundant. I have, however, seen it in the Botanic Garden at Sydney in the month of March. Its food consists of insects of various orders, the stomachs of those examined containing the remains of Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, and caterpillars. While searching for food, its motions, although very active, are characterized by a remarkable degree of quietude, the bird leaping about from branch to branch in the gentlest manner possible, picking an insect here and there, and prying for others among the leaves and the crevices of the bark with the most scrutinizing care. Its flight is rather quick and undulating, and when passing from one tree to another on a sunny day, the brilliant green colouring of the male shows very beautifully. Like the true Cuckoos, it always deposits its single egg in the nest of another bird: in Van Diemen’s Land those of the Malurus longicaudus and Acanthiza Diemenensis are generally selected; in New South Wales the Malurus cyaneus and the Acanthiza chysorrhÆa are among others the foster-parents; in Western Australia the nests of the various kinds of Honey-eaters, and the Malurus splendens, are resorted to; and it is a remarkable fact, that the egg is mostly deposited in a domed nest, with a very small hole for an entrance. The stomach is capacious, membranous, and slightly lined with hair. Its note is a mournful whistle, very like that usually employed to call a dog. The egg is of a clear olive-brown, somewhat paler at the smaller end, about eleven-sixteenths of an inch long by half an inch in breadth. The adult male has the head, all the upper surface and wings, of a rich coppery bronze; primaries brown with a bronzy lustre; tail bronzy brown, crossed near the tip with a dull black band; the two lateral feathers on each side with a series of large oval spots of white across the inner web, and a series of smaller ones opposite the interspaces on the outer web; third and fourth feathers on each side with a small oval spot of white at the tip of the inner web; all the under surface white, crossed by numerous broad conspicuous bars of rich deep bronze; irides brownish yellow; feet dark brown, the interspaces of the scales mealy. The female is similarly marked, but has only a wash of the bronzy colouring on the upper surface, and the bars of the under surface much less distinct, and of a brown hue. The young, which are brown, with a still fainter wash of bronze, have the throat and under surface grey, without any trace of the bars, except on the under surface of the shoulder; the base of the tail-feathers deep rusty red, the irides bright grey, and the corners of the mouth yellow. The Plate represents the male, female, and young, of the natural size. SCYTHROPS NOVÆ-HOLLANDIÆ: Lath. |
|
