ii8 The Irish Naturalist. November, 



end of the island they were at once attacked and driven 

 off by the terns, and a young gull unable to fly, on the water 

 off the point, was having a very poor time. 



This settlement of Lesser Black-backed Gulls is, I 

 believe, the largest, in a confined space, to be found inland 

 in Ireland and is seldom molested. 



Bloomfield, 



Holly mount, Co. Mayo. 



OBSERVATIONS ON A FEMALE CUCKOO. 



BY GEO. R. HUMPHREYS, M.B.O.U. 



This year I was so fortunate as to come across a female 

 Cuckoo {Cuculus c. canorus) about to deposit her egg, 

 and as I was witness of the procedure the following account 

 drawn up from notes made at the time may be of interest. 



On the 24th May, 1924, accompanied by John Maloney, 

 a very intelligent and observant youth, I visited a certain 

 place at Lucan, Co. Dublin, to inspect the nest of a Willow 

 Warbler (Phylloscopus t. trochilus) which Maloney had 

 assured me contained the exceptional number of eight 

 eggs. Unfortunately the nest had been destroyed by 

 boys, and I was therefore unable to verify this interesting 

 statement. 



A few minutes later we were crossing a piece of uneven 

 ground, on which some hawthorns were growing singly 

 and in hedge form at a spot where the ground was 

 intersected by a deep ditch, when Maloney remarked that 

 he saw a hawk. At that moment I also saw the bird 

 and identified it as a Cuckoo being chased by a Meadow 

 Pipit {Anthus pratensis). A Song Thrush {Turd us philo- 

 melus clavkei) also appeared in the line of flight. It at 

 once occurred to me that the Cuckoo was a female about 

 to deposit her egg, and calhng Maloney to my side, I 

 decided to keep her under observation. 



By this time the Cuckoo had flown into a hawthorn 

 and the Meadow Pipit and Song Thrush had disappeared. 



