174 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



THE GREAT SPOTTED CUCKOO. 



(Cuculus glanda rius.) * 

 Plate 49, Fig. 7. 



The claim of the Great Spotted Cuckoo to be included in the 

 British list is very slender, and rests on two examples only. It is a 

 well-known summer migrant to several parts of Europe, where it 

 arrives rather earlier than the Common Cuckoo. 



Like the latter, the present bird is a parasite, and deposits 

 its eggs in the nests of other birds, and leaves its young to be 

 hatched and reared by other species. The nests selected by the 

 bird for its purpose are the species of Crows. A Magpie's 

 nest, either that of the common species or the Azure-winged 

 Magpie, is generally selected in Spain and Algeria ; but in Egypt 

 that of the Hooded Crow is preferred, and in some parts of 

 Palestine that of the Black-headed Jay is probably chosen. 



The eggs of the Great Spotted Cuckoo are very pale bluish- 

 green in ground-colour, spotted and blotched with light brown, 

 and with numerous underlying markings of violet-grey. On some 

 specimens these underlying spots are more numerous than the sur- 

 face ones, and the markings are generally pretty evenly distributed 

 over the whole surface, but are most numerous at the larger end 

 of the egg. They vary from 1*35 to 1'2 inch in length, and from 

 1'05 to 0"9'2 inch in breadth. Although the eggs of this bird bear 

 considerable superficial resemblance to those of the Common 

 Magpie, they may be distinguished from them by the reddish 

 instead of olive-brown colour of the surface-markings, and by 

 the numerous grey underlying markings. They are also on an 

 average smaller and rounder. 



THE COMMON CUCKOO. 

 {Cuculus canorus.) 



Plate 49, Figs. 1—5, 9—13. 



The Cuckoo is a summer visitor to Great Britain ; and in winter 

 it visits on its migrations nearly every part of the southern conti- 

 nents of the Old World, while during the breeding-season it is 

 found almost everywhere from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 



* Coccystcs glandarius — Saunders, Manual, p. 278; Sharpe, Handb., II., p. 21. 



