The Shining Cuckoo

Taupo Times, Volume I, Issue 41, 22 October 1952, Page 1

The Shining Cuckoo

More About An Unwelcome Tenarit (TO THE EDITOR) Siiy — Mrs Avis Acres* welcome letter in the "Taupo Time's" about the habits of the Shining Cuckoo should stimulate interest in this remarkable bird and also in the habits of the Long-tailed Cuckoo, The secrets of both have yet to be discovered by naturalists in New Zealand. As Mrs Acres remarks it is quite possible for the cuckoo to lay on the ground and then pick up its egg in its bill and place it in another bird's nest — but accepted evidence is against this, and I confidently prophecy that it will be found to lay its egg, projecting it directly into the nest entrance when the nest is an inaccessible one, as described by me in the case of cuculus canorus h\ Stuart Baker's "Cuckoo Problems," and in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society (circ: 1936) and eisewhere. Those interested should study "The Cuckoo's Secret," by Edgar Chance, and a later hook of his "The Truth About the Cuckoo." Find Your Cuckoc ! May I give a few hints to those who weuld discover the shining cuckoo's secret ? First, of courSe, find your cuckoo ! Take no notice of ihe male birds calling from the tree-tops for they are but noisy philanderers— if one can so speak of a bird. They are on tour over a wide area of counfcry and promiscuous in sex. Try and discover the shy, little hen bird in the low bush. She may be located by the noisy attention paid her by grey warblers and other birds. She will be found to keep in a restricted area in which she resides for the whole of the breeding season to the exclusion of any other hen cuekoos of her kind. Most probably she returns faithfully to her territory year after year from her distant winter quarters in the far islands. Like the cock birds, she too is promiscuous in sex. The more she can be ob~ served in her own small area — perhaps only a few hundred yards across — the greater are the chances of discovering her secret. She will be found to have favourite perches concealed in low scrub from which she watches intensely her dupes the grey warblers. The next thing to do is to draw a sketch map of the area and mark on it all the nests of the grey warblers it contains. These are to be found by watching the birds themselves and not by looking for nests.

Laying Her Eggs The cuckoo may be expected to lay her egg sometime after mid-day, most probably in the evening, even as late as dusk. She will choose a nest that contains fresh eggs and so it is such nests that must be kept under close observation. As there will only be few of them this is not as difficult as it sounds. Those nests that contain incubated eggs may be destroyed and indeed the cuckoo will help in this, in order to cause the birds to make a new nest and lay again, and so present the cuckoo with an opportunity of laying her egg. If the shining cuckoo's egg can be readily identified as laid by a particular hen bird, as in the case of mo§t cuckoos, it will help to establish her territory and also the number of eggs she lays in a season, and the intervals of her laying. The Eu-ro-pean cuckoo lays up to 20 eggs in a

season and when in full lay she lays, not every day but every other day. It would also show if this species lays more than one egg in a nest. Since it has been known to eviet the nestowner's young ones, the shining cuckoo is not*likely to lay more than one egg in any given nest, and the young cuckoo most probably has a depression between the shouiders to help it in evicting the young of the dupes. Sounds of Alarm Knowing by this time the locality well, and all the grey warblers' nests in it, have ready a small tent for a hide prepared. Keep on patrol in the afternoon in the vicinity of the nests that contain fresh eggs that are ready for the cuckoo and listen for alarm notes made by any nestowners. It is their noisy clamour that will betray the presence of the cuckoo. She, the crafty one, is wTeli concealed somewhere close by scheming to outwit the nest-owners and get her eggs into the nest. If they attack her and press home their attack, landing upon her and pecking out her feathers, you may be assured she 'Is about to lay. So you must hurry up into your hide. She may make one or two preliminary passes at the nest which shows you she knows exactly where it is for she found it no doubt when it was being made some days earlier. When she is ready to lay she will do so with courage and determinatioh — even if 1

4 people are about. She will most probably on arrival at the nest put her head into it and pick out one of the eggs which she may show you in her bill before swailowing it. If you have your field glasses now carefully focussed at about X5 on the nest you will see the cuckoo at arms length as it were — her. expression and every detail. If the egg is to be seen in her bill you will see if it is one of her eggs — or one of the warbler's. Then she will lay her egg, and then you will see exactly how it is d-one — as I did — in 1936. Do not forget to filrn it all and you will then have irreputable evidence to convince the sceptics. — I am, etc.,

T. R.

LIVESEY.

Scannell Street, Taupo. October 10, 1952.