CUCKOW. 401 



knowing what iElian had said, reported with doubt (L'Hist. 

 Nat. &c. p. 42) the assertion of an inhabitant of Sologne 

 to the effect that the hen Cuckow lays her eggs precisely of 

 the same colour as those in the nest of which she makes use.* 

 The statements of these authors were commonly rejected 

 as absurd by those who referred to them ; but in 1853 a 

 similar belief was independently and prominently professed 

 by Dr. Baldamus (Naumannia, 1853, pp. 307-325), and 

 after some time became known in this country. f Most 

 English ornithologists, like the majority of their continental 

 brethren, were sceptical of its truth, as the former might 

 well be, since no likeness whatever is ordinarily apparent in 

 the familiar case of the blue-green eggs of the Hedge- Sparrow 

 and that of the Cuckow which is so often found beside it. 

 Dr. Baldamus based his belief on a series of eggs in his 

 cabinet,! whence he subsequently figured (Naumannia, 1854, 

 pi. 5, p. 415) a selection of sixteen specimens to illustrate 

 his observations^ However the matter is to be explained, 

 it seems impossible, save on one supposition, to resist the 

 testimony these specimens, and others of a like kind, 

 afford. This one supposition is that the eggs in question 

 have been wrongly ascribed to the Cuckow, and that they 

 are only exceptionally large examples of the eggs of the 

 birds in whose nests they were found ; for it cannot be gain- 

 said that some such monstrous examples are occasionally to 

 be met with. In opposition to that view is to be urged the 



and from him M. des Murs (op. cit. p. 69). The passage (De Nat. Animal. 

 III. xxx.) is too long to extract ; but its real meaning is as above. Some of the 

 examples -Elian cites are very inappropriate, so that his statement is of little 

 value except as shewing the antiquity of a belief which most persons suppose to 

 be of very recent origin. 



* "Pour ce qui est de l'assertion d'un autre Solognot, qui dit que la femelle 

 du Coucou pond son ceuf preciseiuent de la nienie couleur que cenx du nid qu'elle 

 adopte, c'est une chose incomprehensible." 



f Chambers's Journ. Pop. Lit. Science and Art, No. 208, 26 Dec. 1857, viii. 

 pp. 410,411; Ibis, 1865, pp. 178-180 ; Wilts. Mag. x. pp. 115-130; Zool. 

 s.s. pp. 1146-1166. 



£ In 1S61 he kindly shewed this series to the Editor. 



§ Another most interesting series of sixteen eggs has been beautifully figured 

 by the owner, M. Nicoud, in illustration of a paper by M. de llougemont (Bull. 

 Soc. Sc. Nat, de Neuchatel, xi. pp. 509-517, pi.). 



