The Cuckoo Problem in Australia

THE AUK: A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY. VOL. L. OCTOBER,1933. NO. 4. THE CUCKOO PROBLEM IN AUSTRALIA. BY A. H. CHISHOLM, C. F. A. O. U. (Plate XI.) IT Is an odd fact, and one to be lamented,that Australianshave donelittle sustainedwork amongtheir country'srepresentatives of a very remarkablefamily of birds, the cuckoos. This relative failuremay be duein part to economicreasons and to our ex•ensive distances.It may be due alsoto the conmpetitivelure of other extraordinarybirds with whichthis "last, lonecontinent" abounds. As an anomaly,however, I fancy it is due largely to our embar- rassingvariety of cuckoos. Australiacontains no fewerthan .fourteenspecies of thesebirds, rangingfrom robustcreatures as large as pheasantsto beautiful little birds scarcelylarger than sparrows,and all but one are parasitic. Sydneyitself is surelythe mostcuckoo-haunted city in the world,since in any normalspringtime one may seeor hear ninespecies of cuckoosupon its fr•ges, and someof themocca- sionallynear the centerof the city. I imaginethat i/all these birdsbelonged to onespecies, migratory for preference,they would offer a sharperchallenge to nimble wits. As matters are, their very varietyis disarming;it causesthem to blendunostentatiously with the generalbird-population. However that may be, what watcher of wild birds in Australia wouldcare to think of this continentwithout its cuckoos?They are not, as one may say, neighhourlybirds. They are for the mostpart undistinguishedin form and plumageand flight, and 385 I t UPPER--WHITE-BROWED SCRUB-WREN FEEDING YOUNG FAN-TAILED CUCKOO. LOWER--I•UFOUS FAN-TAIL FEEDING YOUNG BRUSH CUCKOO. PHOTOGRAPHEDAT SYDNEY•AUSTRALIA• B1 r A. H. CHISHOLM. 386 CHISHOLM,TheCuckoo Problem in Australia. [•c•t. not one of them couldfairly be termed a songster. Yet there is somethingappealing about theseleathered outcasts: something admirablein the bland defiancethat carriesthem through all tribulationsin a hostileworld and enablesthem to populateevery portionof the continent,from the jungles,forests and heath-lands of the coastalareas to the great lonely spacesof the interior; and, moreover,there is somethingwistful in their voices,which, however irritating whenheard all throughthe night, possessan "airi- ness" that never permits them to becomeprosaic. One shotfid,I think step warily when striving to interpret bird-voices. It may be sufficientlyobvious that a bird singing heartily, and with every indicationof good cheer, is in fact ex- pressingpleasure; but it doesnot necessarilyfollow that a bird whosecustomary notes fall plaintively upon our hearingis indeed feelingforlorn. And yet, is it not a striking fact, that although the voicesof Australiancuckoos vary so widely, every one of them conveysa strongsuggestion of melancholy? Listento thesewails and trills and screams,and almostyou will be persuadedto believethat the senseof dolouris not merely a human interpretation:that althoughthese may be mating-calls, the cuckooshave acquiredover the centuriessome consciousness of being outcasts,and are expressingvocally the lonelinessof the non-normal.• Listen in particular to the trilling wail of the Fantailed Cuckoofalling through darknessand continuingwith the dire insistence that has caused its author to be termed the "Brain-fever Bird"; or listen to the gaspingnotes of the Brush Cuckooissuing from a jungle at midnight;or, again,listen to the high-pipingmonotone of a BronzeCuckoo emulating the shrilling of a high wind: listen to any or all of thesecries and you cannot avoid the conclusionthat here is Loneliness,utter and inescapable; here, in the voicesof birds, is the spirit of Masefield'sSeekers: "There is no solaceon earth for us, for such as we ." I would not have it thought, however,that every cuckoovoice in Australiais entirely dolorous. The Pallid Cuckoo,for instance, can not be creditedwith melody,but there is a certain heartiness, • Perhaps there is some evidence here to support the theory of exponents of the theory of territory in bird-life that song is prompted by, or has been developed upon, territorial considerations.--A. H. C. ¾1•L] CHISHOLM,TheCuckoo Prob•m in Australia. 387 perhapsan element of "earthiness"in its curious,throaty, as- cendingcall. This bird is, moreover,a definiteharbinger of spring in southernAustralia, and manypeople who knownothing of its loosedomestic habits are familiarwith and cordiallywelcome the salutation that has caused this cuckoo to be known as the "Scale- Bird." No enterprisingboy who takespart in the Bird Call com- petitionsconducted annually in Sydneywould dream of omitting the chant of the Pallid Cuckoofrom his repertoire. I suspect thispopularity to be duenot somuch to the qualityof the cuckoo's call as to its settingin the chorusof early spring;were the same deliberatewhistle heard only at night it wouldbe votedeerie. Further north, in sub-tropicalareas, the Koel, or Black Cuckoo, is equally persistentas a harbingerof spring, a fact to which Brisbanenewspapers bear witness each September, for they never fail to receivethen, reportsfrom rural areas to the effect that "Last night I heard my first Cooee-Birdfor the season." Here againit is probablethat relativelyfew peopleknow of the bird's domesticmisdeeds; it is the appealingvoice that grips them. The voice of the Koel is indeed one of the most notable of bird- utterances,•ts chief feature a full-throated "Cooeeee" and an equallyresonant "Too-wong"--melodiously contralto calls which by reasonof their vowelstress contain a suggestionof "the moan of dovesin immemorialelms." It has been suggestedthat the distinctivelyAustralian cooee had its origin in the voiceof this bird. Be that as it may, the Koel did in fact furnishthe nameof one of Queensland'slargest metropolitan suburbs, Toowong; for to this localitylong ago the "Cooee-Birds"came abundantly to feedupon cockspur berries, and in the processof tellingtheir name to all the hills,unwittingly contributed a geographicallabel. Voiceagain is the dominatingfactor in the popularrecognition of the Channelbill,which, two feet in length,is easilythe largestof Australiancuckoos. This bird, too, is a migrant,but no harbinger of spring;it drifts down the easterncoast with the comingof summer,and by reasonof its screamingprelude to the heavyrains of the tropicsit is frequentlyknown as the "Storm-Bird." This great bird is, to speakmildly, the least appealingof the cuckoos. One needhave no personalobjection to the deceptionit practices in loistingits familyresponsibilities onto magpiesand Currawongs, 888 CHISHOLM,The Cuckoo Problem in Australia. [oct.[Auk and neednot hold the bird to blamefor its top-heavysuggestion of the hornbills;but one cannotreadily forgiveit that appalling scream,a blusteringoutburst that has not even the savinggrace of revelry.To listento the Channelbillis to mournthe proba- bility that severalyoung magpies, singers in the making,died to make room for this uncouthgiant. Many birds of Australia, as is the casein other countries,are esteemedbecause of their sociability. It will be clear that this doesnot obtain with the cuckoos,even allowingfor the element of wistfulnesswhich I have suggestedis present in the notes of many species. And yet the hand of man, destroyerof so many irreproachablebirds, is rarely raisedagainst a cuckoo. I do not supposethat this freedomfrom molestationis due to the skulking nature of the variousspecies, or even to publicignorance of their murderoustendencies; it is due rather to the fact that cuckoosdo not directly affect man or his products, whereasif they were occasionallyfruit-eaters, like some of the honeyeaters,or were edible,like the pigeons,they would be much lessabundant than they are. With bird-studentsthe outlook is different. We are impelled at times to give seriousthought to the menace of the cuckoos, recognisingthat their birth-rate implies a commensuratelylarger death-rateamong other insectivorousbirds, and recognisingalso that intenseparasitising may gravely decimatethe numbersof a restricted species. What, for instance,of the Rock-Warbler, a bird found only in the sandstoneareas near Sydney? Is it likely to be endangeredby the ravagesof the Fantailed Cuckoo? suggestthat in such caseswe may well have faith in Nature, realising that even if excessiveattention by cuckoosseriously decimateda species,the consequentshortage of nestswould react against the cuckoosthemselves and causethem to "break in" new fosterers. Realisingthis, we may peepinto a honey-birds'nest and, seeing there an eggslightly different from the others,we may reflectthat here is a murderer in the making, and that both sentimentaland economicinterests would be served by removing this egg and savingthe lives of unbornhoney-birds; but upon further thought (unlesswe be merely egg-collectors),we will not interfere. Full Vol.1933 L]J CHISHOLM,ß TheCuckoo Problem in Australia. 389 often, too, we may comeupon a robustyoung cuckoo luxuriating in a flycatchers'nest, the bodiesof the baby flycatcherscold in deathbelow, and the misguidedfoster-parents working themselves thin in the interestsof their changeling,and againwe may feel an impulseto right this wrong;but again,if we are discreet,we will set asidethe merelyhuman view and refrain from meddlingin a dramathat is, in plain fact, no concernof ours. Far better to let the uncannyprocess run its course,to mark carefullyand marvel at all developmentsassociated with that menacingegg, and to endcavourto trace throughthese factors the originand historyof avian parasitism. Is there,after all, any need to lookfar for

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