250 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



sion on the part of the cuckoo, and the method by which it 

 was accomplished, and Mr. Blackburn, of the University of 

 Glasgow, has lately verified and authenticated his statement. 

 In one instance he found the nest of a titlark with two etrsfs 

 in it, as well as one of the cuckoo. This was carefully watch- 

 ed, and at a subsequent visit to the nest the titlarks were 

 found hatched, but not the egg of the cuckoo. At the end 

 of forty-eight hours the young cuckoo was found in the nest, 

 and the titlarks were outside of it, down a bank, apparently 

 quite lively. They were returned to the nest with the 

 cuckoo, which struggled about till it got its back under one 

 of them, when it climbed, backward, up the side of the nest, 

 and threw the titlark over the margin and down the bank. 

 This was repeated in several instances, quite often enough to 

 show that it was a regular instinct of the animal. The most 

 remarkable fact in the case was that the cuckoo was perfect- 

 ly naked, without a vestige of feathers, and its eyes still un- 

 opened, while the titlarks w r ere more or less feathered and 

 with bright eyes. A second case of similar character is re- 

 corded by Mr. G. E. Row T ley in the May number of Hard* 

 wicke's Science- Gossif). 12 A, March 14, 1872, 382. 



FOSSIL BIRDS OF FRANCE. 



The study of the fossil birds of France by A. Milne-Ed- 

 wards has tended to throw a good deal of light upon the 

 question of the climate which prevailed during the prehistor- 

 ic period, some species then abundant having disappeared en- 

 tirely, and others receding to the north with the mammalia. 

 Some ethnologists have maintained that the presence of the 

 reindeer in France in the early ages is to be attributed, not 

 to the climate, but to its having been introduced as a domes- 

 tic animal by the Finnish population. This explanation, 

 however, can not apply to the grouse and snowy owl, the re- 

 mains of which are very abundant, and which are equally 

 characteristic of a high northern climate. 



Among other birds, the cock occurs abundantly, which, 

 therefore, show's that, instead of having been introduced from 

 India, it must have been contemporaneous with the first ages 

 of mankind. 



The middle tertiary deposits of France have furnished a 

 very rich harvest of separate varieties, among about seventy 



