GREAT SPOTTED CUCKOW. 4 1 1 



Until 1853, no certain information as to the most im- 

 portant part of this species's habits had been published.* 

 But in that year Dr. A. E. Brehm made known (Journ. fUr 

 Orn. 1853, pp. 144, 145) the result of the observations made 

 in 1850 by himself, his late brother Oscar, and Dr. Vier- 

 thaler, to the effect that in Egypt it was parasitic upon the 

 Grey Crow {Corvus comix) j, and its eggs were figured by 

 Badeker (torn. cit. Extrah. p. 117, Taf. v. Fig. 4). In 1857 

 Canon Tristram, with Messrs. Hudleston and Salvin brought 

 from Algeria (Ibis, 1859, pp. 76-78, 316-318) several 

 specimens, found in nests of the Moorish Pie {Pica niauri- 

 tanicd), and two of them were figured by Hewitson (torn. cit. 

 pi. ii. figs. 1,2); but the first of these gentlemen was some 

 time before he could persuade himself that the bird evaded 

 all parental duties. His subsequent experience, however, of 

 its habits in Palestine following upon that gathered mean- 

 while in Egypt by Allen {op. cit. 1862, p. 357; 1863, p. 363) 

 and Mr. Cochrane {torn. cit. 361), and in Spain by Dr. A. E. 

 Brehm (Journ. fur Orn. 1861, p. 393) and Lord Lilford (Ibis, 

 1866, pp. 177-179, 183, 184 and 381) convinced him {torn. 

 cit. p. 281) of its absolute parasitism, and was subsequently 

 confirmed by Mr. E. C. Taylor {op. cit. 1867, p. 55) in 

 Egypt, and again in Spain by Mr. Saunders {op. cit. 1869, 

 p. 401) and Mr. Dresser. No doubt indeed can now exist 

 as to the fact, and the notes of these observers give a pretty 

 full account of its way of breeding. It lays its eggs very early 

 in the year, and, so far as is known, always in the nest of one 



* In 1767 appeared Gerini's postbumous 'Storia Nat. degli Uccelli', wherein 

 are figured both the adult and immature of this bird, as though distinct species 

 (pis. 70, 71), and the latter is stated (i. p. 81) to have nidified among bushes at 

 Pisa, in 1739, to have had four young, and to have been never seen since — a 

 manifest error, as Dr. Salvadori (Uccelli d'ltalia, p. 42) remarks ; but on this 

 authority was based the Pisan Cuckow of Latham (Syn. i. p. 520), and hence 

 Graelin's Cuculus j)isanii.s. Though the species was found to be abundant 

 enough in Egypt by the French naturalists, its mode of propagation was unknown 

 to them (Audouin, Descr. de I'Egypte, xxiii. p. 333). Drs. Kviiper and Hartlaub 

 ascribe the discovery of its breeding to llerr Gonzenbach, without however 

 stating the year in which he made it. From his own observations (Journ. f. Orn. 

 1861, pp. 238, 239) he had certainly not ascertained the truth in 1858. 



f This interesting paper was translated by Mr. Sclater (Zool. p. 3987). 



