134 Mr. C. F. M. Svvynnerton on Rejections [Ibis, 



striatus minor (fig, 2) and, later, one of Sitagra ocularia 

 (' Ibis,' 1908, pi. viii. fig. 5) ; also, subsequently, a -vrhite 

 egg of Hyphantornis jamesoni (fig. 3), and, when this was 

 removed by myself, one of Telephonus senegalus, white with 

 a heavy sepia cap. 



9. Size and shape not always important where coloration 

 is nearly the same. — "12.12.15. Serinus sharpei nest in 

 low custard-apple bush, conspicuous. Three eggs, fresh. 

 Replaced one (22vl5 mm.) with a white egg noticeably 

 smaller than itself (19 X 16 mm.) and far rounder — Ispidina 

 natalensis,-^VQ.ci\c&\\y certainly. Adopted. Later I put in a 

 white Hyphantornis jamesoni egg (fig. 3), a good deal bigger 

 than the Canary's egg and differently shaped (26 x 16 mm.). 

 Adopted. A Layard BulbuVs egg was at once discarded ; 

 but the Canary was still sitting on the Hyphantornis and 

 smaller Q.^g, and one of its own, a few days later. A Coly 

 {Colius striatus minor, fig. 2) with the usual chalky-white 

 eggs (23 X 18 mm.) accepted and retained one of the 

 Canary's (white, but smooth and of a difi'erent shape). 



An egg of this Canary is figured in ' The Ibis ' for 1908, 

 pi. viii. fig. 4. Those in the nest in question were pure 

 white and hardly spotted at all : one was really unspotted. 

 The small round Kingfisher's egg of the experiment was one 

 of a clutch that I had found in an ant-bear's hole, mixed up 

 with the silt from a heavy rain. The clutch contained a 

 Cuckoo's egg, of the same white colour as the others, but 

 larger (26 X 20 mm.), and, like the others, it showed slight 

 incubation, indicating that it had been accepted and sat on 

 before the catastrophe occurred. It was probably that of 

 Coccystes hypopinarius, a common Cuckoo here ; and it is 

 rather a question how its inserter could have got to the 

 Kingfisher's nest, unless this was laid in the main hole 

 or a very shallow passage off it. '* Both Millar and the 

 Woodwards have taken the eggs [of this Kingfisher] from 

 the earth of an ant-bear" (Sclater, Fauna S. Africa, iii. 

 p. 84). Chrysoeoccyx has also been recorded as laying 

 in the nest of Ispidina^ but I am unable to lay hands on the 

 reference. 



