THE CUCKOO'S FOSTER- PA HUNTS AND EGGS 



in July seems to point to a fiiliUlillg of cuckoos previous to, or on, 

 in i-r; it N.I i The s|>ecies lias been seen to migrate in flocks, also 

 -m_l \ The adults clrjwrt for the most |mrt early in July ; the young 



tnlluu xninc \\crk> liltrl. ;ili.| h;\r roi ir< | IK 'lit I \ It) lili.l thrir \\;i\ to 



their African winter quarters under the guidance of their instinct 

 only, knowing nothing of the new wonderland where, for the first time, 

 perhaps, th<>v will meet others of their kind, and among them, it may 

 be, the parents they have not yet seen and do not recognise. 



THE CUCKOO'S FOSTER-PARENTS AND EGGS 



[F. C. R JOCBDAIN] 



Various lists have been prepared at different times of the different 

 foster-parents made use of by the cuckoo, but for the purposes of this 

 paper we may ignore the earlier ones, which were necessarily baaed 

 on imperfect data,* and consider only the later and fuller ones. In 

 1883 Mr. E. Bidwell published a list of 86 foster-parents, with indica- 

 tions of the origin of most of the records, in the Traw. Norfolk and 

 Norwich Nat. Hist. Soc. t iii. p. 526.* In 1892, in his Altes wid Neuttam dem 

 J/atuthalte dt* Kwkucks, the late Dr. E. Rey gave on pp. 18-20 a list of 

 117 foster-parents. Of these some 18 were from India or Siberia, and 

 in those cases where the records were unique or exceedingly rare, 

 references are given to the name of the author to whom they are due, 

 while an attempt is made to classify the occurrences geographical!) . 

 In 1896 Mr. E. Bidwell organised an exhibition of cuckoos' eggs in 

 London, at which 919 were shown, and in the 7W of that year (pp. :*97- 

 400) he published a list of Western Palwarctic birds in the nests of 

 \\ 1 1 ich cuckoos' eggs have been found. This list contains the names 

 of 119 species, with the number of eggs of each species exhibited 



* See " Classified Not**." 



* Some particulars of earlier list* may be gleaned from W. Well* Bladen'* list of reference* 

 in the Annual Rgp. and Trnn. of the \. Staff*. \alnrttli*t* Field Club, 180646, p. 80. 



' Of thnu 42 were marked M baring occurred in Great Britain. 



