i 4 LOCH CRERAN. 



rest, we found it considerably advanced; and, conse- 

 quently turned to the egg of the cuckoo with great care, 

 so as to secure it uninjured. This was more than 

 we managed, from a most unexpected cause. The young 

 bird was much more completely Jormed in the egg of the 

 cuckoo than in that of the pipit, and the result was some- 

 what disastrous. Is the young bird really more rapidly 

 matured in the egg of the cuckoo than in that of the 

 pipit ? Does it hatch sooner, or remain longer inside in 

 a mature state, gaining strength for the coming attack on 

 its foster brethren ? We cannot answer these questions ; 

 all we know is that the two eggs of the tit-lark were much 

 less mature than that of the cuckoo, and to all appear- 

 ance would be longer of hatching. We should be glad 

 to learn if any one has made a similar observation, or if 

 the young cuckoo has been observed at any time to be 

 hatched before the other occupants of the nest ? There 

 is so much that is strange in this bird that we should not 

 be at all surprised to find that it matures in the egg more 

 rapidly, so as to be more certainly a match for its 

 co-occupants. Our discovery of the advanced condition 

 of the cuckoo's egg was based on no previous theory, but 

 a sudden and unexpected surprise. We have no doubt 

 the cuckoo deposited the egg in this pipit's nest with its 

 bill, as they are said to do, otherwise we cannot conceive 

 how it got there. 



JULY, 1 88 1. 



We have had broken, uncertain weather, but suddenly 

 yesterday the roads were converted into streams, the 

 screams into torrents, and every trickling hill runlet into 

 bounding cascades. The wind shifted from quarter to 



