380 CUCULID.E. 



have the credit of bringing up the young Cuckoos. On one occa- 

 sion I found a Cuckoo's egg in the nest of Lanius erythronotus ; but 

 this was not the egg of C. canorus, and I have always thought it 

 must be the egg of G. himalayensis, as it is a slightly smaller egg 

 than that of C. canorus. Eggs always found in May ; last egg 

 taken on 29th May, 1869. Found a young fledged Cuckoo on 

 30th May, 1869." 



I myself see no difficulty about getting the eggs into the nest. 

 Only two years ago I shot a female Cuckoo with an egg in her 

 mouth, and though the egg was smashed 1 have seen enough 

 Cuckoo's eggs since then to be pretty sure it was her own egg ; 

 and I fully believe, though it seems to be considered fabulous at 

 home, that the Cuckoo does at times carry her egg in her mouth 

 after laying it. Again, I have taken an egg of Coccystes jacobinus 

 out of a domed nest of Munia malabarica, into which the parent 

 bird could, at most, have only got her head and neck. 



Mr. Brooks says : " Common all over the district around 

 Almorah where the country is open. I have one egg taken from a 

 nest of Pratincola maura at Almorah, another from a nest of 

 Gopsychus saularis. They lay in Kumaon in May." 



I myself obtained two specimens in nests of Oreocorys sylvanus 

 on the 9th and llth June, near Kotegurh. 



Colonel C. H. T. Marshall, writing from Murree, tells us : 

 " We found the eggs of this bird in the nests of Oreicola ferrea 

 and Anihus jerdoni." 



Mr. E. Thompson says : " Lays in May and June. I found 

 one or two young birds in the nests of Pipits at Almorah 

 some years ago. In July the birds are well on the wing, and 

 betake themselves to lofty trees, and begin their migrations south 

 forthwith." 



Dr. Scully writes : " The Common Cuckoo is found in great 

 numbers in the Valley of Nepal during six months of the year, 

 from April to October. The earliest date on which it was noticed 

 was the 31st March, and the latest about the first week in October. 

 It frequents the central woods and the forests on the hill-sides up 

 to 6000 feet, rarely ascending to about 7000 feet. It lays in May 

 and June, generally selecting the nests of Pratincola maura and 

 0. ferrea, and occasionally, I think, that of Pomatorhinus erythro- 

 yenys." 



Colonel Butler remarks : " I believe that the Common Cuckoo 

 breeds at Mount Aboo (although I have never taken the eggs 

 there) from the following observations. At the end of May it 

 arrives in considerable numbers. At that season they are remark- 

 ably noisy, enlivening every part of the hill with their familiar 

 note, for about six weeks or two months, after which they are 

 silent. 



" I noticed particularly that all of the birds on their arrival were 

 in the adult plumage. 



" About the beginning of October a number of young birds in 

 the hepatic plumage made their appearance, and these had only 



