THE CUCKOO’S SECRET.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 June 1924, Page 1

THE CUCKOO’S SECRET.

(Bv H.V.E. in the Sydney Herald)

Comparatively recently (1022) Edgar Chance, an English bird-lover, offered £SOO to anyone who could prove that the cuckoo laid its egg on the groudn and afterwards took it up in its beak and placed it in a suitable nest that is, one the rightful owners of which are themselves insectivorous birds, like the cuckoo. This reward, however, has gone begging. Air Chance also published a book entitled “The Cuckoo’s Secret." illustrated with selections from tlio “cuckoo film,” in which the cuckoo is shown at the nest of another bird. This book was the outcome of four years’ close study of the cuckoo’s methods of production. Passing to a consideration of the methods, so far as they arc known, of some of the Australian cuckoos, the writer has twice seen a cuckoo—of the bronze-winger variety, tly out of another bird’s nest, in each instance the nest being retort shaped, and having a fairly wide spout-like entrance. In one instance the nest of a blue wren (superb warbler) was favoured, -in the

other that of a ground wren (tit warbler), both of these being insectivorous birds. LIKE TO LIKE. It is worthy of note that the cuckoos instinctively avoid placing their eggs in the nests of birds which are mot insectivorous ; lor instance, • those or “red-heads” (red-browed finch) and ■ “diamond sparrows” (spotted sided finch), these birds being mainly seed eaters, and thus unfitted as foster parents for the young cuckoo. On the other hand, T found on one occasion a flesh-coloured egg, lielonging, 1 think, to the fantailed cuckoo, lying on the hare ground. There was, apparently, no bird of the cuckoo species near by at the time, but it- i.s possible that the owner of the derelict egg (which was added to a collection) might have been away in quest- of a nest suitable' for it to bo placed in. Birds are quite capable of carrying eggs in their beaks. I have watched a black-breasted, or plains, plover carrying away one of its eggs in its beak" after tlio discovery of the nest. But, being under close observation and somewhat frightened, the plover dropped the egg after carrying it a short distance, otherwise it would no doubt have effected its removal safely to another most —in this instance a mere shallow depression or hollow in the soil. Tn another instance two eggs were removed from a clutch of four belonging to a pair of sacred kingfishers, the hollow in which they were laid having so small an entrance that the two eggs removed had to he taken out with a dessert spoon. The 'nest was situated in a remote forest, far from human habitations, and there were no “goannas” (monitor lizard), great despoilers of birds’ nests, in the vicinity. On the following morning it was found that the two eggs .left in the nest hail disappeared. Some birds break up their eggs and east them out of the nest if they tire bandied, but in this instance no egg-shells were lying about. It is therefore probable that the kingfishers removed the remainder of their dutch to another tree hollow. THE PROBABILITY.

On the whole it is probable that cuckoos as a rule actually lay tiieir eggs in other birds’ .nests, but that they sometimes deposit an egg 0,1 the ground and afterwards place it in a suitable domicile not always easy to find. The female cuckoo is said to possess the power ol retaining a. fully formed egg longer than the females of other species, but this unusual power of retention must necessity be more or loss limited as to time. Cuckoos, by tin- way—al any rate tin* .smaller ones, do not as a rule attempt to lay their eggs in the nests of pugnacious birds, such as, for instance, the “Willy Wagtail'’ or black fantail. Another curious point relative to cuckoos is that, at any rate with regard to the English (or European) cuckoo, the bird, according to some skilled observers, calls with its beak dosed. So reliable an authority as tin* late .loseplt A\ olt —the foremost bird artist ot his day. who did many of the illustrations for (build's ‘birds of Australia’’ and other splendid works on ornithology, inclined to this opinion. This is not true, however, of Australian cuckoos, hut then not one of those birds produces a note in the least like the sound of the word “cuckoo.” The boobook owl, it may he noted, has been referred to by some early writers as the ‘Australian cuckoo, which calls only hv night, hut this bird's curious call has lull a remote resemblance to • the sound of “cuckoo."