_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _Hullmandel & Walton Imp._
]
CHRYSOCOCCYX LUCIDUS.
Shining Cuckoo.
_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.
_Dj̏u-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.
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