492 THE CUCKOO 



p. 403) ; P. F. Bunyard (British Birds, iii. p. 185) ; G. W. Kerr and E. 



Pettitt (Zoologist, 1909, pp. 397-8) ; W. Farren (British Birds, iv. p. 37). 

 Grasshopper-warbler. F. Bond; F. W. Lambert (Zoologist, 1892, p. 246). 

 Great-tit. P. F. Bunyard (Bulletin B. 0. C., xxvii. p. 40). 

 Redbacked-shrike. F. Bond; C. E. Wright (in litt.) ; J. G. Tuck (Zoologist, 



1899, p. 323) ; cf. torn cit., 1901, p. 251 ; J. Palmer (Caradoc and Severn 



Valley Field Club Report, 1906). 

 Spotted-flycatcher. F. Bond; J. G. Tuck; C. E. Wright (in litt.), and others. 



Cf. J. H. Gurney (Zoologist, 1898, p. Ill (2 f reared)). 

 Swallow. H. Nicholls (Zoologist, 1869, p. 1866 f) ; G. Rooper (torn, cit., 1877, 



p. 260) ; Field, March 22, 1890, p. 432 ; C. Wolley Dod (Ibis, 1892, pp. 524- 

 530f ) ; E. W. Atkinson (Field, Aug. 11, 1894, cf. Zoologist, 1894, p. 340f). 

 Ring-dove. Willughby. 

 Pheasant. W. Wells Bladen (Rep. and Trans. N. Staffs. Field Club, 1895-96, 



p. 24). 

 Red-grouse. Dumfries Courier, July 1, 1844 (quoted by H. S. Gladstone, 



Birds of Dumfries, p. 169). 

 Kestrel. J. Shaw (quoted by H. S. Gladstone, loc. cit.). 



(The four latter species can hardly be regarded seriously as foster- 

 parents, and in each case the cuckoo had probably failed to find any 

 suitable nest in which to deposit her egg. 1 ) 



Although it has long been known that a considerable amount of 

 variation exists in cuckoos' eggs, the curious fact remains that in a 

 series of British taken eggs, the variation is considerably less than in 

 a similar series taken on the Continent. At the time of the first 

 publication of Dr. Baldamus' work on the eggs of the cuckoo, in which 

 it was stated that the eggs of the cuckoo tend to mimic those of the 

 foster-parent, this statement was met with much incredulity on the 

 part of some English naturalists, and led to a long controversy in the 

 columns of the Zoologist. A fuller knowledge of the range of variation 

 in this species has proved that mimicry does exist in a large propor- 

 tion of cases, especially on the Continent ; but side by side with such 



1 The same remark applies to the jay, green- woodpecker, stock-dove, turtle-dove, and little- 

 grebe, all of which have been recorded as foster-parents on the Continent. 



