CUCULUS. 381 



recently left the nest, so that probably these were hatched on the 

 hill." 



The two eggs sent me by Captain Cock as belonging to the 

 Common Cuckoo are in shape somewhat elongated ovals, slightly 

 compressed towards one end. In texture the shell is fine and 

 compact, but with scarcely any gloss. The ground-colour is nearly 

 pure white, and the egg is finely spotted and delicately streaked 

 and speckled with a somewhat pale yellowish brown and faint 

 purple, the markings being pretty thick towards the large end, but 

 somewhat sparse over the rest of the egg. An egg obtained by 

 Captain Blair at Kotegurh is precisely similar, but has the ground- 

 colour faintly tinged with pink. 



The eggs vary, as is well known, to a remarkable extent, both 

 in size and colouring. Of two others which I myself obtained I 

 have noted : " Of one the ground is pure white and glossless, 

 thinly freckled and streaked with brownish red and pale purple. 

 The other has a pinkish, stone- coloured, somewhat glossy ground, 

 mottled and freckled with dull, slightly brownish red." 



In length the eggs vary from O93 to 1 inch, and in breadth from 

 07 to 0-73 inch. 



Cuculus intermedius, Vahl. The Asiatic Cuckoo, 



Cuculus himalayanus, Viff., Jerd. B. 2nd. i, p. 323. 



Cuculus striatus, Drap., Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 200. 



This species, the Asiatic Cuckoo, lays during June, and only I 

 believe in the Himalayas within our limits, though its wanderings 

 are extended far and wide, and I have myself quite recently shot it 

 in the southern group of the Nicobars. 



I have never taken the eggs, but have obtained the young in 

 company with Trochaloptenim lineatum, the species that most com- 

 monly officiates as foster-parents for this Cuckoo. 



Writing from Mussoorie, Captain Hutton says : " The natives 

 have an idea that this bird builds its own nest and rears its young 

 itself : this is erroneous, but it evidently arises from the curious 

 fact that, when the young bird is old enough to leave the nest, the 

 foster-parents feed it no longer, and it is then supplied by the old 

 Cuckoo, or at all events by one of the same species. This I have 

 myself repeatedly witnessed, and think it not improbable that others 

 of the Cuckoo tribe may do the same thing, for it seems almost in- 

 credible that Trochalopterum lineatum, in whose nest the egg of 

 C. intermedius is often dropped, could supply so voracious a bird 

 after it had left the nest, neither could the little Hedge-Sparrows 

 of England do so for the young of Cuculus canorus. At Jeripanee, 

 below Mussoorie, I have seen the young Cuckoo sitting for hours 

 together on a branch waiting for the return of the adult bird, 

 which continued every now and then to bring supplies of cater- 

 pillars wherewith to satisfy the apparently insatiable appetite of 

 the nestling, until at last both would fly off to another spot. To 



