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Show 1896.] CUCKOO IN THE GILBERT ISLANDS. 935 " I promised to write you as to the ' Tekabare' (Eudynamls taltensis), of which I sent you specimens in 1894! " This bird is found in both the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, and is, I believe, the only land-bird in the Gilberts, whereas in the Ellice Islands a large light slate-coloured Pigeonl, known in Fiji as the ' Thireke,' is also found. "During the latter part of m y stay in the Gilberts, I was always on tbe look-out for information as to the nesting of the 4 Tekabare,' but was unable to get any from the natives. " In August last year I was at the island of Niu, in the Ellice Group, aud while walking through the island along with the local trader w e passed a clump of ' buka' trees, in which, as is common throughout the Ellice Islands, there were numbers of the Noddies (Anous stolidus) nesting. I noticed that in one tree the birds were much disturbed and apparently frightened. The trader explained that the birds were disturbed by a ' Hawk.' W e remained some time watching, and I saw our friend the Cuckoo drive a Noddy out of the nest and take possession of it, while the old birds and apparent proprietors tried in vain to dislodge the intruder. The trees were high with long bare boles, impossible to climb, and if climbed it would be difficult to get at the nests, as the wood is soft and the branch on which the nest was built was insufficient to bear one's weight. " I do not doubt that tbe Cuckoo was about to lay. As there are no ' buka' trees in the Gilberts, the Cuckoo doubtless lays in the Noddy's nest on the pandanus. " I have often watched the Noddy in the Gilberts picking up grass and bits of coconut leaves and making its nest, which when finished very much resembles that belonging to a land-bird. It would be interesting to know whether the young Cuckoo is raised on a fish-diet. " Although I offered rewards to the natives on many islands, I never was able to get an egg of tbe Cuckoo. In the Gilberts the people say they have never seen eggs or young, and, as I told you, they hold the tradition that the female takes a portion of the covering of the young palm-leaf and flying up with it deposits it on a cloud, lays her egg on it, where it is hatched by the sun. " At the island of Funafuti, where the scientific expedition n ow is, the Cuckoo may be seen at the back of the town, aud there are probably half a dozen birds in the atoll. Both the Noddy and the Man-of-War bird are kept as pets in the Ellice and Gilbert Islands, but I could never find that the Man-of-War bird was (as has been stated) used to carry messages between different islands. The old men always laughed at the idea." 1 Probably Globicera pacifica. |