98 BULLETIN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The number of eggs laid by the Khasia Hills cuckoo probably 

 varies somewhat individually, though I believe it generally to be 

 12 to 20. It is, however, very difficult to decide this definitely, as 

 it is impossible to be satisfied that every nest of the selected fosterer 

 in any given area has without doubt been marked down. It was 

 not until 1907 that I concentrated on the attempt to solve any one 

 of the numerous cuckoo problems, and it was some years after this 

 before satisfactory evidence had accumulated on this particular point. 

 My different series of eggs of individual cuckoos vary greatly in num- 

 ber, being, I believe, governed entirely by the number of nests of 

 the foster parent available in the area searched over. In 1908, on 

 May 25, in one small grass glade surrounded by pine forest I found 

 five nests of Clsticola, three containing young cuckoos or eggs of the 

 cuckoo, and I am practically sure that I missed no Cisticola or Suya 

 nests. One of these nests had in it a young cuckoo about 2 days old, 

 another nest had a young cuckoo just hatching, while a third had a 

 slightly incubated cuckoo's egg. The two other nests of the Cisti- 

 cola were unfinished and empty, but on June 1 one of these con- 

 tained a slightly incubated cuckoo's egg and three of the foster 

 parent, while, finally, on June 4 the last nest contained a fresh egg 

 of the cuckoo and four of the warbler. As the egg from which 

 the older of the nestling cuckoos had been hatched must have been 

 laid about May 13, while the last egg was laid on June 3 or 4, we 

 have only five eggs laid in 21 days, whereas we know now that the 

 larger cuckoos lay every second day, so the five eggs and the two 

 young found cannot possibly include all then laid. A series of 14 

 eggs, all found between May 19 and June 10, 1910, in a similar but 

 much larger area, were probably laid between May 16 and June 10 

 and represent a complete series laid every alternate day. In another 

 small series of five eggs of one and the same cuckoo found in a nar- 

 row strip of grassland three eggs were deposited in Cisticola's nests 

 on May 16, 18, and 20, this exhausting all the nests then available. 

 After this she apparently departed, but on July 5 and 7 the same 

 cuckoo returned and placed two more eggs, one each in two new 

 nests of Cisticolas. Another series of 14 eggs, of which 12 were 

 placed in nests of Cisticola jundicis cursitans^ one in a nest of C. 

 exilis tytleH^ and one in a nest of Suya atrogulans khaslana^ were 

 laid in two periods : The first from May 15 to 23 occupying each of 

 the five nests of the fantail warbler available between these dates, 

 and, then, from June 1 to 18 in all the nests then available in that 

 particular area. Finally a series of eggs of one cuckoo that were 

 taken from 1925 to 1935 consisted of the following numbers: 6, 8, 

 14, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 14, 11, 15. In 1925 and 1926 woodcutters were 



