File:The birds of Australia (16677606528).jpg

PLATE IE-
ORDER INCESSORES.
UCH a wide variety of birds are grouped under this order that a long list of mere names would
not exhaust even the most prominent species. Australia is rich in examples ; this will be evident
to the most careless observer of birds when he knows that the shrill and gaudy Parrots, Parrakeets
and Cockatoos, so common over the length and breadth of our continent, come under this heading. Such
examples as we possess of the Swallow and the Swift also belong to the order, as do the Kingfishers ;
one member of this tribe, the Laughing Jackass, being known and wondered at wherever the name of
Australia is mentioned. The Honey-eaters comprise a multitude of birds, and there is a great variety
of others which will be illustrated and commented upon in turn, beginning the list with the world-famous
Cuckoos, those genial Communists among birds, of which we have several examples, though none of them
possess those two soft notes which in England are the surest herald of oncoming spring.
FAMILY CUCULID.E.
"1% TOST of the members of this truly remarkable family have the strange parasitic habit of laying
their eggs in the nests of other birds, leaving the process of hatching and rearing to the
unfortunate proprietress of the borrowed nest. Australia has several examples of the Cuckoo, varying
greatly in size. Though we have not so many varieties as are to be found in Europe, the methods adopted
by the Australian birds are almost indentical ; nearly all of them have this parasitic habit, and here
in the southern hemisphere the bird upon which the strange duty of hatching the Cuckoo's eggs is
imposed, submits as tamely as do the northern varieties.
GENUS CUCULUS.
rj^HE one representative which is classed with this genus inhabits the more northerly parts of