HIMALAYAN CUCKOO 87 



I have only two small series of three eggs, each of which I believe 

 to have been laid by one cuckoo, one of these being taken in 1909 

 by myself. Of this latter the first two eggs were found on June 

 16 and 18 in a patch of forest in which we marked down three nests 

 of the Khasia crowned willow warbler, one of which contained no 

 cuckoo's egg. On June 13 we found that the pair of warblers first 

 seen on May 16 had again built close by their original nest and the 

 new one contained a third egg, apparently of the same cuckoo, and 

 three of their own. The nests found on May 16 and 18 were between 

 a quarter and a half of a mile apart. 



On another occasion, June 27, 1935. three eggs were taken, one in 

 the nest of the willow warbler and two others in nests of Seicercus. 

 These were all in the same forest, but only two close together and 

 the third nearly half a mile away. The eggs, however, appeared 

 obviously to have been laid by the same bird. 



Eggs. — The eggs of this species of cuckoo are all of the same type, 

 white eggs sparsely marked with tiny black specks, sometimes con- 

 fined to the larger end only. Several oviduct eggs have been taken, 

 the first by Brooks from the oviduct of a female he shot in Kashmir 

 on June 17, and three others by Kattray in 1903 on June 10, 15, and 

 17, respectively. All these were exactly alike and similar to the de- 

 scription given above. 



The only two exceptions in coloration I have seen are eggs one of 

 which has a faintly green tinge while the other has an equally faint 

 pink tinge. The first of these was taken from a forktaiPs {Enicnrus 

 maculatus guttatus) nest and the second from that of a tailorbird 

 {Orthotomus atrogularis nitidus). 



In shape the eggs are rather long ellipses, and the shell is thin and 

 rather fragile for a cuckoo's. 



Forty-one eggs average in size 20.11 by 14.28 millimeters; maxima 

 25.3 by 16.2 ; minima 19.0 by 13.0 millmieters ; the same number aver- 

 age in weight 141.4 milligrams; maximum 178; minimum 117 

 milligrams. 



A large double-yolked egg weighs 222 milligrams, while two very 

 small, almost pygmy eggs, weigh only 105 and 112 milligrams. 



The method of the deposition of the eggs is not known, but in many 

 cases they could not possibly be laid direct into the nest. The crowned 

 willow warbler makes a nest in a hole in among the roots of trees 

 with so small an entrance and so far in that the cuckoo could not pos- 

 sibly get in to lay her egg nor could she eject it from the cloaca suffi- 

 ciently far to reach the egg chamber and, if she did, it would cer- 

 tainly break. Nests of the genus Seicercus and of Acanthopnetiste 

 reguloides are so shaped and situated that though the cuckoo could 

 not enter them she could very often eject the eggs into them without 

 much difficulty by clinging to their tops or sides during the operation. 



