166 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS 



Hors.) and the Blue Wren ; but now I find the Striped 

 Ground-Tit (Chthonicola sagittaia) objects also. On the 

 25th of December, 1894, I observed a cuckoo's egg in this 

 tit's nest under the inner lining. The Ground-Tit had 

 covered it to stay incubation. In December I took from 

 the male chamber of a Yellow-tailed Tit's nest a fresh egg 

 of the cuckoo, while below in the incubating chamber were 

 three young. The upper room was also domed, with side 

 entrance, and I fear the cuckoo was as much deceived with 

 this parlour as the proverbial fly was with another. A third 

 peculiar case showed a cuckoo's egg upon the ledge of the 

 nest of the White-fronted Chat {Ejohthianura albifrons), 

 18th December, 1895, while within were two quite naked 

 young and one egg. Did the Chat push this egg on to the 

 ledge ? The following observation was recently made at 

 Swan Hill by three of my friends. I identified for them 

 two eggs of this species in the same nest of Xeroj^hila 

 leucopsis, already mentioned, along with five eggs of the 

 latter (27th October, 1897). 



Dr. Rey, in Nature, remarks that such an example is 

 a sign of the colonizing instinct, and upon his theory, these 

 eggs being diflferently marked and with various colour 

 density, they belong to different females. Tiie theory is said 

 to have been exploded. Diflferent members of this species 

 have been known to lay their eggs in the nests of 22 

 diflferent species of birds, and at the present moment there 

 is the interesting point to be settled whether the insect- 

 eating Diamond-bird (Pardalottis assimilis) is not also a 

 foster parent. It is not usual to place an egg 12 inches 

 down a hollow ; for how would the young cuckoo turn out 

 the pro})er young of the nest? This interesting item will need 

 time and observation to settle. The cuckoo's egg has been 

 found in a similar situation, viz., in the nest of the tree- 



