°' "J From Magazi)ies, &c. Q^ 



efficient ornithologist one must use the gun, but if the young man 

 wishes merely to divert himself by the study of birds, or to make 

 their study simply an excuse for leading an out-of-door life, the 

 opera glass, not the gun, is the implement best suited to his use. 



* * * 



Cuckoos. — Sixty pages of the Proceedings of the Ornithological 

 Society of Bavaria (1903, vol. iv., New Series, vol. i.) are occupied 

 by observations on the European Cuckoo {Ciicnlus canortis) by the 

 late Johann Andreas Link. The author has devoted the leisure of 

 forty years to the study of this species, and his statements may claim 

 some weight. The European Cuckoo is a congener of our familiar 

 Pallid Cuckoo (C. pallidus), also of the Fan-tailed Cuckoo {Caco- 

 mantis flahelliformis), and in view of the interest lately taken in the 

 study of Australian Cuckoos, and the probability that what is true 

 of the habits of C. canoriis will be found to be true also of its local 

 representatives, it may be worth while to see what the author has 

 to say about the European bird. His conclusions may be summed 

 up thus : — • The Cuckoo finds foster-nests by the eye and by 

 noticing small birds building. It visits the nests before it is ready 

 to lay, and remembers where they are. The egg is deposited by 

 means of the bill when the nest allows of no other way, and it 

 chooses nests of the latter kind even in preference to ones it could 

 easily sit on. Most of the nests frequented by the Cuckoo are more 

 suited in point of construction and situation for bill-depositing than 

 for direct laying ; indeed, in most of the preferred nests bill- 

 depositing is the only method possible. Therefore it may be said 

 the Cuckoo deliberately chooses the indirect way in most cases, 

 even when the possibility of direct laying is not excluded. Bill- 

 depositing is therefore the normal way for the Cuckoo. The female 

 usually finds nest and deposits egg alone ; if the male does ever 

 accompany her it is from motives of jealousy only. The breeding 

 season lasts as long as the bird calls — 70 days on an average. 

 The -female arrives 8 or 10 days later than male. The first egg 

 is laid 20-25 days after first call heard. The Cuckoo lays about 

 eight eggs in a season, with about 6 days interval between each. 

 This length of interval may account for the bird not hatching its 

 own eggs. One is the normal number of the Cuckoo's eggs for one 

 nest. If there are more, it means suitable nests are scarce in pro- 

 portion to the Cuckoos looking for them. The same Cuckoo may 

 sometimes lay two eggs in the same nest. Three eggs in a nest is 

 the record. The Cuckoo chooses the species that has reared it. A 

 nest with one Cuckoo's egg first laid is usually deserted by the nest 

 birds. Exceptionally a Cuckoo's egg is found with a full clutch 

 of the foster-parent's ; here the Cuckoo has laid first. If it has 

 time to do it, the Cuckoo usually removes one or more foster-bird's 

 eggs when laying its own. It usually lays in nests containing fresh 

 eggs, but sometimes by error in sleeping or i)lay nests. After 

 the young Cuckoo is hatched the old female Cuckoo visits the nest 

 and removes the other eggs or young, as the case may be ; if she 



