64 Life History of Common Cuckoo. 



VII. 



In the cases at the South Kensington Museum de- 

 voted to birds' eggs and nests, we find in those set 

 apart for the clutches among which the cuckoo's eggs 

 were found, one case in which the blue eggs of the 

 Accentor modiilaris (hedge-sparrow) were exactly imi- 

 tated as to tint, though the cuckoo's egg was a good 

 deal larger than the sparrow's ; in three other cases 

 brown spotted eggs lay beside the sparrow's pale-blue 

 ones ; and another blue egg beside blue eggs of the red- 

 start, only larger ; while, with regard to reed-warb- 

 lers, yellow wagtails, white wagtails, aquatic warblers, 

 garden warblers, pied wagtails, the eggs had a general 

 likeness, but were larger, and some of them some 

 shades darker. In a few cases — that of the meadow- 

 pipit especially, on which the cuckoo very frequently 

 imposes — the eggs were markedly lighter — much 

 lighter and larger. The cuckoo's egg was much 

 darker than those of the yellow-hammer beside it, and 

 the intruded egg was very unlike those of the willow- 

 warbler — much larger and darker.'" Dr. Bowdler 



* Nor can there be, on my part, any error of memory or lapse 

 here ; for a writer — very exact and reliable — in Cha7nbtrs'<: 

 Jourmil for August, 1899 (since this book was written), in an 

 article on " Cuckoo Mimicry," has this paragraph : 



" The hedge-sparrow — the most frequent foster-parent of the 

 cnckoo — lays a turquoise blue egg, whilst the ordinary colour of 

 the cuckoo's egg is a dull speckled-brown, very like that of a sky 

 lark. In the Natural History Museum collection there are six 

 clutches of eggs of the hedge-sparrow, each containing a cuckoo's 

 egg. The localities from which they come are : (i) Brighton, (2) 

 Hayward's Heath, (3) South West Lancashire, (4) North West 

 Cheshire, (5) and (6) Hampshire. In the case of No. i (Brighton) 



