90 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. vi. 



DESERTED WREN'S NEST USED AGAIN. 



In May, 1912, I found the nest of a Wren (Troglodyte.'^ t. trog- 

 lodytes) in an apple tree. It was not lined, and I did not 

 expect it to be used. At the beginning of June the birds 

 (or others) returned to it and lined it, and two eggs were 

 deposited. The nest was then deserted again for nearly 

 three weeks, and the eggs were spoilt. I left them in the 

 nest and was surprised, early in July, to see a Wren leave 

 the nest when I kicked the tree. I then found that two more 

 eggs had been laid. These hatched in due course, and the 

 young were becoming feathered, when something destroyed 

 the nest. J. H. Owen. 



EARLY LAYING OF THE CUCKOO AND REMOVAL 



OF THE EGGS OF FOSTER-PARENTS. 



As it is stated in British Birds for June (p. 18) that authentic 

 records of the laying of the Cuckoo {Cuculus c. canorvs) in 

 England in April are very scarce, perhaps the following note 

 may be of interest. 



On May 1st, 1902, I was told by a gamekeeper (in Surrey) 

 that on the previous day (that is on April 30th) he had foimd 

 a Robin's nest in which there was a large dark-coloured egg 

 in addition to three Robin's eggs. I at once asked him to 

 show me the nest, which was in a bank quite close to where 

 Ave were standing. I found that it contained, besides three 

 Robin's eggs, a fine large Cuckoo's egg of a very unusual red- 

 brown colour like that of some Tree-Pipits' eggs. Now this 

 Cuckoo's egg must have been laid at the latest in the early 

 morning of April 30th, as the keeper saw it in the nest at 

 about ten o'clock on that day, and it may have been laid 

 the day before (April 29th). 



Three years later on Maj' 4th, 1905, my eldest son informed 

 me that he had found a Robin's nest in a bank not far from 

 my house with one egg in it. He took me to the nest and on 

 extracting the egg I found that it was not only a Cuckoo's 

 egg, but a red-broAvn one, the exact duplicate of the one I had 

 taken from the Robin's nest in the wood about four hundred 

 yards away on May 1st, 1902. I have these two red-brown 

 Cuckoo's eggs still in my collection, and although the original 

 beautiful rich-red colour has much faded since they were 

 first taken, they are still very distinctive, and I have never 

 seen any other Cuckoo's eggs like them. They were un- 

 doubtedly laid by the same bird, or the second was laid 

 by a descendant of the Cuckoo whose egg I took on May 

 1st, 1902. 



