21-t Major R. 7. Meiklejohu on the [Ibis, 



laid on any given day, and, since Dr. Rey himself admits 

 that eggs may not be deposited in nests on the day they are 

 laid, it is difficult to see on what his conclusions are based. 



(c) He then, however, quotes the interesting instance, 

 referred to on p. 197, in which the eggs of a female were 

 abnormal, probably owing to a defect in the sexual organs, 

 and as, in this ease, it is clearly possible to assign them to a 

 definite bird, the tables he gives are worth close study. 



5 eggs were found in 1889 on the 30th of May and the 7th, 14th, 25th, 



and 26th of June. 



8 „ „ „ 1890 on the 22nd, 23i-d, and 29th of May and the 



3rd, 5th, 8th, and 12th of June. 



9 „ „ „ 1891 on the 14th, 20th, 26th, and 28th of May and 



the 3rd, 9th, 12th, 10th, and 19th of June. 

 7 „ „ „ 1892 on the 24th and 2Gth of May : 11th, 14th, 15th, 



and 27th of June ; and the Ist of July. 



Dr. Rey states that the eggs found on the dates in italics 

 were laid on these precise days, and that all the eggs were 

 in nests of the Red-backed Shrike. 



Now it will be seen that the highest number of eggs found 

 in any one year was 7iine, and yet it may be assumed that 

 the locality was well searched. Also, an examination of 

 Dr. Rey's tables shows that only in one instance (referred 

 to below (dy) were more than nine eggs of the same female 

 found in any one year. He accounts for this by the many 

 eggs he considers get broken and destroyed ; still it is hard 

 to find in the tables any indication of such a high number 

 as twenty for a female in a year, and it must be as>umed 

 that Dr. Rey and his son made every endeavour to find 

 all the eggs. The dates, too, show curious changes and 

 intervals, and seem to dispose of the theory that the eggs 

 are laid at any regular periods, or in two clutches, as in 

 the case of other species ; but, naturally, once the Cuckoo 

 adopted parasitic habits the necessity for this would cease. 



(d) Finally, we have the one case, referred to above, in 

 which more than nine eggs were found in a year, as Dr. Rey 

 claims to have discovered seventeen, all of which he could 

 assign to "No, ^3 — Female No. 52" between the 2ist of 



