94 From Magazines, &c. [ond"o( 



Oct. 



is prevented from visiting the nest the young Cuckoo throws out 

 the other young, but not the eggs. It gets under the other young, 

 loads them on to its back, which has a special hollow at the earliest 

 period of its life-history, and throws them backwards, lifting them 

 to the edge of the nest and out over it. The young Cuckoo cannot 

 do this till it is 3 or 4 days old. At 12 days the hollow in its back 

 and the desire to throw out the other young birds disappear together. 

 The young Cuckoo is usually found alone in the nest a short time 

 after hatching. The exceptions are — {a) When the Cuckoo's egg 

 is laid last and hatched after the other young ; (b) in the case of 

 nests in hollows, where it is impossible for the young Cuckoo to 

 throw the other inmates out. If there are two young Cuckoos 

 hatched in the same nest one throws the other out. The Cuckoo 

 has as much maternal love as any other bird, evidenced as follows : 

 — " As soon as the female Cuckoo has found a suitable nest to 

 deposit its egg in, and the egg is ripe for laying, it removes one or 

 more of the eggs in the nest and puts its own egg there. This action 

 is proof of the first exercise of care for her offspring on the part of 

 the female Cuckoo, since the intention is to make room for the 

 proper incubation of the Cuckoo's egg. Before incubation is com- 

 plete the female Cuckoo appears again to see whether her egg has 

 been hatched. If it has, she removes everything from the nest but 

 her own egg. She throws the foster-bird's eggs out and leaves 

 them almost always near or under the nest. She proceeds in a 

 similar way with the nestlings, but removes them with greater care, 

 with the result that the little birds are to be found at first near the 

 nest, soon afterwards further away, and finally not at all. In my 

 opinion the reason for this difference in the treatment of eggs and 

 young lies in this — that the eggs, being motionless, do not draw 

 the attention of the female Cuckoo upon themselves any further, 

 but the little birds, by moving after being thrown out, awaken the 

 suspicion in the female Cuckoo's mind that they may be able to 

 get up and creep back into the nest again. This action proves great 

 care — indeed, motherly love — which is the more striking when we 

 reflect that the mother has not to concern herself with one child 

 only but with a whole series of them, so must devote similar care 

 to each egg that she lays." 



Reviews. 



At least as important to the student of ornithology as a minute 

 acquaintance with the birds of his own country is a working know- 

 ledge of the relations in which those birds stand to the Ornis of 

 adjacent regions and the rest of the world, so that Australasian bird- 

 lovers should read with interest and profit the lengthy presidential 

 address of Col. W. V. Legge, F.Z.S., delivered 7th January, 1904, 

 at Dunedin, before the Biology Section of the Australasian Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science, which now appears in print 

 in the form of an extract from the " Transactions " of that 



