to have an instinctive consciousness o f the danger to which his beauty subjects him ; nevertheless they will
frequently build their little nest and rear their yoiing in the most populous places. Several broods are reared
annually in the Botanic Garden at Sydney, and I saw a pair busily employed in. constructing their nest in a
tree close to the door o f the Colonial Secretary’s Office in that town. The short and rounded wing
incapacitates it for protracted flight, but the amazing facility with which it is enabled to pass over the
surface o f the ground fidly compensates for this deficiency : this mode o f progression is scarcely to he
called running, but is rather a succession of bounding hops, performed with great rapidity : while thus
employed its tail is carried perpendicularly or thrown forward over the back; in fact, except during flight,
this organ is rarely, if ever, carried horizontally.
The hreeding-season continues from September to January, during which period at least two, if not
three, broods are reared: the young o f one being scarcely old enough to provide for themselves! before
the female again commences laying: independently o f rearing her own young, she is also the foster-parent
o f the Bronze Cuckoo ( Chaleites lucidus), a single egg o f which species is frequently found deposited in
her nest; but by what meaus, is, as in the case o f the European Cuckoo, unknown.
The nest, which is dome-shaped, with a small hole at the side for an entrance, is generally constructed of
grasses, lined with feathers or hair: the site chosen for its erection is usually near the ground, in a
secluded bush, tuft of grass, or under the shelter of a bank. The eggs are generally four in number, of 1
delicate flesh-white, sprinkled with spots and blotches o f reddish brown, which are more abundant, and
form an irregular zone at the larger extremity : they are eight lines long by five and a half broad.
The song is a hurried strain impossible to describe, hut somewhat resembling that o f the Wren of
Europe, a bird to which the Malurt also assimilate in many of their actions.
The stomach is muscular, and the food consists o f insects o f various kinds, collected on the ground, the
trunks of fallen trees, etc.
The male in summdr has the crown o f the head, ear-coverts and a lunar-shaped mark on the upper part
o f the back light metallic blue ; lores, line over the eye, occiput, scapularies, hack, rump and upper tail-
coverts velvety black; throat and chest bluish black, bounded below by a hand o f velvety black ; tail deep
blue, indistinctly barred with a darker hue and finely tipped with white ; wings brown ; under surface huffy
white, tinged with blue on the flanks ; irides blackish brown ; bill black ; feet brown.
The female has thè lores and a circle surrounding the eye reddish brown ; upper surface, wings and tail
brown; under surface brownish white ; bill reddish brown ; feet fleshy brown.
The Plate represents two males and a female with the b est, the former engaged in feeding a young
Cuckoo. . . °