Contests with Victims. 83 



destroys one or more eggs of the foster-parent ; but 

 this seems only occasionally to be the case, and 

 more frequently when her egg is placed in an open 

 nest. . . . It has also, with justice, been accused of 

 devouring eggs, for my friend, Mr. Sachse, has seen 

 one do so. Even after her egg has been deposited, she 

 has been knoian to revisit the nest and destroy or throw 

 out eggs or young birds, never, Jiowever, her own.'' '^'' 



With regard to contests of the cuckoos with vic- 

 timized birds, Mr. R. Swinhoe, in his Ornithology of 

 Hongkong, Macao, and Canton, thus describes one : 



" One I was watching (Cuculus orientalis) flew off 

 to another large tree, in which there was a magnal's ^ /JflAfrxa/^ 

 nest, and close to the nest a brown bird, much like 

 himself in form. The brown bird turned out to be 

 the female, and set up a chattering noise on the 

 arrival of her mate. She, very probably, had dropped, 

 or had come to drop, an egg into the nest, for the 

 magnal (Gracupia nigricollis) soon returned to the 

 tree, and, seeing strangers so near his abode, charged 

 them : the magnal, however, was defeated and driven 

 off, and the cuckoos remained victorious." t 



Mr. Swinhoe does not tell any more, which is un- 

 fortunate. Had he watched further, he might so far 

 have decided the point whether with this species 

 there was an attempt to destroy and take a magnal's 

 egg from the nest. 



Mr. J. H. Gurney quotes Mr. Norgate to this effect : 



" June 4th, 1885. At about 3 p.m., my housemaid 

 told me she had just put her head out of the window 

 and saw a large slate-coloured bird, with a long tail, 



* Dresser, v, ad loc. 

 t P- 46- 



