The Cuckoo 



315 



or two before, when I had looked at it, the Cuckoo was 

 panting, evidently affected by the heat ; in fact we had 

 shaded it, by placing some bracken leaves to screen it from 

 the sun, but by some means the leaves had been removed, 

 and the sun's rays fell direct on the young Cuckoo. 



" To summarize this account, I may state that the eggs 

 of the Cuckoo and four eggs of the Accentor were found in 

 the nest of the Accentor on the iyth June. On Friday, 

 June 27th, the Cuckoo's egg and two eggs of the Accentor 

 were hatched. On Saturday, June 28th, one attempt to 

 put out Accentor's egg did not succeed. At 10.30 a.m. the 

 first egg was put out of the nest. About 11 a.m. the 

 first young Accentor was pushed out. At i p.m. the 

 second egg was pushed out in the presence of three 

 witnesses. The last of the lot, the second young Accentor, 

 was removed between I and 3 p.m. during the time I was 

 absent." 



It may interest my readers to know that a recent com- 

 putation of the number of species in which the Cuckoo is 

 known to deposit its egg is 119. In some instances a 

 mistake has probably been made as to the Cuckoo's egg, as 

 for instance in the case of the Little Grebe, where an 

 abnormally small egg of the actual species may have been 

 mistaken for that of the Cuckoo. This summer (1898) a 

 remarkable egg, no bigger than that of a Cuckoo, was 

 found in the nest of a Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) by 

 Mr. Philip Dalby, of Castle Donington, and by him pre- 

 sented to the Natural History Museum, along with two 

 normal eggs of the Moorhen. It was coloured exactly like 

 the usual eggs of the latter species, but was of tiny 

 dimensions ; but in Mr. Dalby's opinion and my own, 

 it was nothing but an abnormally small egg of the Galli- 

 nula. Similar instances may have occurred with other 

 species of birds. 



One curious fact about the egg of Cuculus canorus is its 



