The Shining Cuckoo.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 September 1938, Page 4

The Shining Cuckoo.

Sign of the return of warmer weather, the shining cuckoo has been heard frequently near Auckland recently. The first report of the bird’s return was from Northcote, where the distinctive but rather mournful call of the shining cuckoo was heard at Sylvan Avenue on September 5. Many others have been heard this week at Titirangi, the Waitakere Ranges and at Warkworth. Keas Escape. By using their strong, sharp beaks to cut the wires of their cage in the Invercargill gardens alongside the Puni Creek, two keas which have been in captivity for nearly two years enjoyed an hour or two of liberty in the sunshine. A householder who went into his back garden to inspect the fowls found that one of the keas had invaded the run, to the clucking amazement of the hens. The other bird showed a fondness for perambulator tyres and glasshouses. A woman who was wheeling a pram in a private garden was surprised to find an escort interested in the moving 'wheels and who by continual pecking threatened to cut the rubber tyres to shreds. After a feed of rubber and some soliloquising at a distance the bird made off and was later found admiring the specimens in a glasshouse.