638 Additional Remarks on hepas smatifera. 



the growth of the egg; though this effect is unquestionably 

 occasioned by it : it must rather have reference to some other 

 peculiarity of the bird's habits, which we have yet to discover. 

 It is certain that the maternal feelings of the cuckoo are not 

 quenched, astonishing as this may appear. Mr. John E. Gray 

 of the British Museum informs me that he has himself seen 

 a cuckoo, day after day, visit the nest where one of its off- 

 spring was being reared, and which it finally enticed away 

 from its foster-parents ! I had previously heard of analogous 

 cases, but was disposed to regard them as fabulous, until 

 corroborated by so paramount an authority. Since I have 

 proceeded thus far with the cuckoo's history, I may add 

 that, although caterpillars form its principal subsistence, it 

 feeds likewise on snails, and various fruits ; and that it is quite 

 true that both sexes devour birds' eggs, as well as callow 

 broods. Of the numerous cases I have now accumulated of 

 the occurrence of the cuckoo's egg, not one has been met 

 with wherein it could not have been laid into the nest. The 

 egg of the cuckoo is most commonly found alone, or together 

 with less than the average number of those of the species to 

 which it is confided. I have one instance in which a young 

 cuckoo was found, half-fledged, in the same nest with two 

 hedge dunnocks of equal age ; which fact I can only account 

 for by supposing that the interloper was weak and sickly at 

 the time of its exclusion, and remained so till the instinctive 

 propensity to oust its companions had entirely dissipated, as 

 we know to be the case. It was, however, apparently quite 

 healthy when discovered. 



Having now brought the principal groups of land birds to 

 a close, the remainder of the feathered tribes noticed in these 

 parts, with the list of fishes observed elsewhere than in the 

 Thames, may be reserved for a future contribution. 



Tooting, Oct. 18. 1836. 



Art. III. Additional Remarks on "Lepas anatifera. By the Rev. 

 W. B. Clarke, A.M. 



In VIII. 55, I have stated the circumstance of numerous 

 specimens of Lepas having been found, off the Dorset coast, 

 on February 7. 1834. A friend has just brought me another 

 series of specimens, attached to a far more curious vehicle 

 than a log of fir ; and, as a proof of the singular tenacity 

 with which these creatures maintain their power of voyaging 

 across the globe, I send you a brief account of the fact. 



One of our Poole pilot-boats was cruising, to-day, in the 



