74 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



In other directions efforts are being made towards the 

 preservation of our own fauna. The existing legislation 

 relating to the protection of wild birds in the British Isles 

 is admittedly much in need of revision and consolidation. 

 At the present time the Act of 1880 and no less than seven 

 amending Acts are in force. This most unsatisfactory state 

 of affairs has led the Home Secretary to appoint a com- 

 mittee "to enquire what action has been taken under the 

 Wild Birds Protection Acts for the protection of wild 

 birds, and to consider whether amendment of the law or 

 improvement in its administration is required." The com- 

 mittee consists of the Hon. E. S. Montagu, Secretary to 

 the Treasury ; Lord Lucas, Parliamentary Secretary to the 

 Board of Agriculture ; and Messrs Frank Elliott, E. G. B. 

 Meade -Waldo, W. R. Ogilvie Grant, Hugh S. Gladstone, 

 and Wm. Eagle Clarke. 



In the interests of bird preservation, we learn with sincere 

 satisfaction that the Secretary for Scotland has not sanctioned 

 the withdrawal of the protection afforded to the Great Skua 

 and its eggs in Shetland, a measure recently sought by the 

 local authorities. 



A paper has just been published by Dr John Rennie 

 entitled " Egg Coloration in the Cuckoo, Cuculus canorus, 

 and its bearing upon the theory of Cuckoo sub-species." x 

 This interesting paper embodies the results of a careful 

 study of 300 Cuckoo's eggs and of the foster clutches with 

 which they were found. Dr Rennie's studies have led him 

 to the conclusion that " the assumed habit on the part of 

 the Cuckoo of adhering to a particular species of foster bird 

 is not in general agreement with fact." But he confirms 

 the great variability of colour in Cuckoo's eggs in general, 

 and the marked uniformity in the case of the individual 

 bird. Summing up the evidence afforded by these clutches, 

 Dr Rennie says, " Cuckoos laying in Sedge Warblers, Reed 

 Warblers, Whitethroats, Lesser Whitethroats, Reed Bunt- 

 ings, Robins, Hedge Sparrows, and other named birds' 

 nests do not in England form separate gentes, ' each with 



1 Proc. Royal Physical Society, vol. xix., No. 5, pp. 97-107 

 (February 1914). 



