228 The World-Evidence. 



well be viewed as a stepping stone on the way to 

 parasitism. 



^Ir. C. J. Alaynard, in a book issued as late as 1882, 

 has the following : 



" Two or three instances have come under my 

 notice, where either the black-billed cuckoo has de- 

 posted its eggs in the nest of the yellow-billed cuckoo, 

 or vice versa, and, furthermore, I have been informed 

 by such good authority that I see no reason for 

 doubting it, that sometimes the eggs of the black- 

 billed cuckoo are to be found in the nests of other 

 birds, and have been taken from the nests of chipping 

 sparrows. It is, of course, possible that this habit, 

 instead of being only an occasional outbreaking of 

 one that is nearly always latent, is progressive ; or, 

 again, under favourable circumstances, it may be- 

 come more general ; in fact, as fully established as 

 that of the cow-bunting, but this is a matter for 

 ornithologists of future generations to prove." " 



We may say, however, that the yellow-billed cuckoo 

 is the great offender m destroying eggs of other birds. 



Here then we have an area of fresh facts in our 

 favour, and also an able American ornithologist, who 

 directly suggests the position we are fain to take — to 

 establish, that is, a marked and increasing tendency 

 to parasitism among the American cuckoos — all going 

 to support the plea of a much closer relation between 

 them and our canorus than has been yet at all realised, 

 and certainly in no way going to support Professor 

 Alfred Newton's Encyclopcedia Britainiica deliverance 



*Birds of Eastern North America, p. 217, ed. 1SS2. The chip- 

 ping sparrow, as Mr. Nehrling tells us, is everywhere a bird of 

 the orchard and garden. 



