VOL. VI.] NOTES. 91 



On May 20th, 1908, the son of a fruit-farmer living near 

 me told me that he had that day found what he thought was 

 a yellow " dishwasher's " (Wagtail's) nest under a strawberry 

 plant. I asked him how many eggs there were in it, and he 

 said there were five. I told him not to touch it, as I would like 

 to come and look at it the following morning. I met the lad 

 about ten o'clock the next morning and the first thing he 

 said to me was, " them dishwashers have been taking their eggs 

 out of the nest and carrying them away." He told me that he 

 had just come from the nest which was less than one hundred 

 yards from where we Avere standing, and that whereas on the 

 previous day there were five eggs in it, there were only two 

 when he had just looked at it, but that he had found another 

 on the ground about a foot away, which he had picked up and 

 returned to the nest. We then walked up to the nest which 

 my companion had inspected less than a quarter of an hour 

 before ; there was only one egg in it, which I at once saw was 

 a Cuckoo's, but we found one of the Wagtail's eggs on the 

 ground quite close to the nest. It was that of a Pied, not a 

 Yellow Wagtail. We searched all round amongst the straw- 

 berry plants, but could not find any more of the Wagtail's 

 eggs. If the Cuckoo did not carry any of them away on May 

 20th it must have removed three from the nest and carried 

 away tAvo of them on the morning of May 21st before 9.30, 

 and after the egg which had been left on the ground had been 

 returned to the nest it must have come back, and after ejecting 

 the two Wagtail's eggs still in the nest must have gone off with 

 one of them, leaving the last one on the ground near the nest. 

 Very likely it would have removed this egg too, if I had not 

 intervened. 



Last year on May 23rd, 1911, I found a Cuckoo's egg in 

 a Greenfinch's nest in my garden. On this occasion none 

 of the foster-parent's eggs had been removed, as I found 

 the Greenfinch sitting hard on her owti five eggs and the 

 Cuckoo's. F. C. Seloijs. 



WRENS AS FOSTER-PARENTS OF THE CUCKOO. 

 Although I have found a large number of eggs and young of 

 the Cuckoo {Cuculns c. canorus) this summer (1912) they have 

 all been in the nests of well-known foster-parents, except 

 one which I found on July 1st. This has been reared by 

 Wrens {Troglodytes t. troglodytes), and I watched both birds 

 feeding it for nearly an hour. They fetched food, cater- 

 pillars, very often, and always fed the Cuckoo from the side 

 and not from the front. The contrast in the bulk was 



