220 ricrr A. Miillcr on a Cuckoo 



of Hohenscliied, a Cuckoo rose suddenly out of tlie bushes 

 close to mCj wliich^ from its pale brownish colour, I recog- 

 nized as a female bird. I soon discovered in a slight depres- 

 sion of the ground near the spot whence the bird flew up 

 three eggs, which attracted my attention from not being all of 

 the same coloration, and from one of the three being of con- 

 siderably smaller size than the other two. As I could not 

 recognize the eggs as belonging to any of our smaller birds 

 that breed on the ground, and as the Cuckoo kept flying 

 about me in a curious way, I resolved to conceal myself 

 under a neighbouring hedge in order to watch the bird more 

 closely. After I had been there a few minutes I saw the 

 Cuckoo alight on the ground and crawl towards the place 

 Avhere the eggs were. My idea now was that the Cuckoo 

 was intending to add her egg to the three already there, and 

 I accordingly remained in my hiding-place at least three 

 quarters of an hour, without seeing the Cuckoo take its 

 departure. This long delay, and the circumstance that no 

 other nesting-bird made its appearance in the neighbourhood, 

 led me to suspect that this must be an exceptional case, and 

 made me very eager to investigate it. I therefore cautiously 

 approached the spot, and soon saw the Cuckoo again rise 

 from the ground. On this occasion, after wheeling round 

 in a half-circle, it retreated further oS" into the forest. A 

 closer examination of the eggs convinced me that two of 

 them presented no remarkable diflerences in size or struc- 

 ture^ although the ground-colour was certainly not the same. 

 I recognized them as Cuckoo's eggs of very fine grain and 

 thin shell. One of them was of the characteristic yellowish- 

 white or pale waxy ground-colour, with dark brown points 

 and a few streaks and scratches. The second, of the same 

 size, was of a reddish -yellow or clay-colour, thickly covered 

 with oil-coloured markings, so that it was something like an 

 cg^ of the Redbreast. They were at least as large as Yellow- 

 hammers' eggs, but more elongated. The most curious egg 

 was the third, which was quite different from the two others. 

 It was very like a Chaffinch's e^^, of a greyish-green ground- 

 colour, sparingly marked with smaller reddish and larger 



