in the Eastern Atlas. 317 



in order that he might more easily watch that no other Arab 

 took the eggs and deprived him of the reward we had offered. 

 Mr. Simpson, on reconsidering the facts of the case, is now of 

 opinion that the eggs had been deposited by the bird herself. 

 The nest in which these eggs were placed was described as an 

 old one, and as probably one of a Magpie {Pica mauritanica) . 

 The next nest obtained was on May 30th, and was that taken by 

 Mr. Tristram, as related in the paper referred to above. Two 

 other eggs were brought to us on another occasion. Returning 

 again to the different nests above mentioned, it would appear 

 that on no occasion did we find other eggs with those of the 

 Cuckoo, and that certainly on two occasions more than one egg 

 was found in the nest, viz. in the nest taken by Mr. Siojpson, 

 and in that taken by Mr. Tristram. Again, there is a proba- 

 bility, from the fact of the two eggs first brought being equally 

 incubated, that they were from the same nest j and it is also pre- 

 sumable that the four eggs brought on the same day were from 

 the same nest, as two of them showed marks of imperfect forma- 

 tion in the shell, one more than the other, indicating the order 

 in which they had been laid. The circumstance of Mr. Tristi'am 

 finding two of the eggs of this bird marked as Pica mauritanica, 

 and two others, really Magpies, similarly marked, after all proves 

 nothing. They were not taken by any of us, else they would have 

 been so noted, but were brought to our tents by some Arab ; and 

 it is as likely that he took them from two, three, or four nests, as 

 from one. Further evidence than an Arab^s bare statement we 

 usually deemed necessary to determine whether the eggs brought 

 to us were from one or more nests. I believe it is contrary to our 

 experience of parasitic Cuckoos to find nests occupied by eggs, 

 certainly of a Cuckoo, more than one in number, and they the 

 only eggs in the nest*. I am not disposed to throw any doubt 

 upon M. Brehm's statements respecting the habits of this bird. 

 I have not his paper, and I am sorry to say it is now in- 

 accessible to me; but, if I recollect rightly, he follows the bird 

 through the whole of the breeding-season, and had on many 



* la writing to me respecting an egg of the Chrysococcyx lucidus of 

 Australia, Mr. \V. Biidger says that it was incubated while the eggs of 

 Acanthiza chrysorrha'u, iu the nest of which he found it, were fresh, show- 

 ing that the egg of a parasitic Cuckoo may be the fust deposited in a nest. 



