268 Calls and Young Cuckoo Birds. 



blackbird sits in a branch just above and sings to the 

 sitting bird. What can this mean ? One might 

 have supposed that somebody had changed the eggs 

 were it not for the cock blackbird sitting above. 

 There is no mistake about the facts ; the nest is close 

 to the path, and we watch the performance every 

 day. There is no nest that we can find in the neigh- 

 bouring bushes. 



" Two years ago a child then staying in the house 

 reported exactly the same facts as having happened 

 in a bush on the other side of tlie path ; but no atten- 

 tion was paid to what he said, as he was a mere 

 child." 



Now, if this is possible between the common thrush 

 and the blackbird, who, though relatives, are not 

 always very aifectionate towards each other, miglit 

 this not happen now and then with the missel thrush 

 and the blackbird. I had an experience of my own 

 precisely in the direction of that of Mr. Audry, but 

 should not desire to base upon it. Has Mr. Witchell 

 extended his observations widely enough to be certain 

 that the short strains like those of the missel thrush 

 are invariable with the young blackbird ? That point 

 settled, generahzation there would be easier. But so 

 much goes to modify these things — locality, as Mr. 

 Witchell tells. Eltham missel thrushes sing longer 

 strains than those of Gloucestershire, etc., etc. 



Mr. Robert Read and other practical ornithologists 

 have frequently found two hen birds laying in one 

 nest. Mr. Read, for example, once found eight 

 thrush's eggs in a nest in a wood near Durham, 

 which from their colour he judged to be the product 

 of two females, as there were two sets of four each. 



