388 BRITISH BIRDS. 
no evidence to show that the young Cuckoos when hatched attempt to 
eject the other nestlings, and they have been several times observed living 
in apparent peace with their distant relations. 
The eggs of the Great Spotted Cuckoo are very pale bluish green in 
ground-colour, spotted and blotched with light brown and with numerous 
underlying markings of violet-grey. Onsome specimens these underlying 
spots are more numerous than the surface ones; and the markings are 
generally pretty evenly distributed over the whole surface, but most nume- 
rous at the larger end of the egg. I have a very fine specimen in my 
collection which, though otherwise rather sparingly marked, has a ring of 
streaks and scratches and spots of rather rich brown and one or two 
underlying streaks of lilac round the large end. They vary from 1°35 to 
1:2 inch in length, and from 1:05 to -92 inch in breadth. Although the 
eges of this bird bear considerable superficial resemblance to those 
of the Common Magpie, they may be distinguished from them by the 
reddish instead of olive-brown colour of the surface-markings, and by the 
numerous grey underlying markings. They are also on an average smaller 
and rounder. 
Small birds apparently are as suspicious of this Cuckoo as they are of 
the common one, and never let slip an opportunity of mobbing it, and 
with a chorus of cries endeavour to drive it away from their vicinity, pro- 
bably mistaking it for a bird of prey, although they have no need to 
dread its visits. 
The adult male Great Spotted Cuckoo is adorned with a handsome 
crest, which, with the rest of the head and the ear-coverts, is slate-grey. 
The rest of the upper parts are brown, suffused with slate-grey on the 
rump, and the feathers conspicuously tipped with white on the scapulars, 
wing-coverts, wings, and tail, but almost obsolete on the primaries and 
two centre tail-feathers. The colour of the underparts is nearly white, 
the feathers of the throat and breast having black shafts. Bull black, 
paler at the base of the lower mandible; legs, feet, and claws slate-grey ; 
irides brown. The female differs from the male in having a somewhat 
smaller crest, and in having the ground-colour of the primaries chestnut. 
The male of the year resembles the female, but has the head and nape 
dark brown, the crest only slightly developed, and the throat, breast, and 
under tail-coverts suffused with chestnut. Birds in first plumage scarcely 
differ from birds of the year, but are somewhat darker on the underparts. 
