THE WKONG TUENING 87 



in a soft and sheltered spot. On one occasion I marked 

 the spot, and returned later. The egg was gone. After 

 a- careful hunt I found a sparrow's nest with a cuckoo's 

 egg in it, about fifty yards from the mark. The difference 

 of colour in thrushes' eggs in the same nest is often 

 marvellous ; and in their case I believe it depends largely 

 on the age of the bird, and the number laid previously; 

 it may be the same with the cuckoo. Pheasants are 

 another example of this diversity of colour. An old 

 forester in Bedfordshire told me once he had several times 

 doubted the possibility of a nest full of eggs all being 

 genuine " till they was hatched, then they was all right." 



G. STUART. 



April 28, 1900. 



NOTE. The noes have it, I think. The principles of 

 the controversy may be stated as follows. Either the 

 habits of the cuckoo are part of nature's general law of 

 selfishness and indifference and have been welcomed, 

 seized upon, and perfected by natural selection 

 or the disuse of the maternal function and de- 

 velopment of parasitism are an expression of the 

 bird's character and a corresponding physiological con- 

 dition. If the first is true, then the party of Miss 

 V/inder wins the day ; if the latter, the party of Mr. 

 Newall. Take the physiology. The reproductive organs 

 of both sexes (see Geddes and Thomson's " Evolution of 

 Sex ") are very small for the size of the bird ; the parturi- 

 tion is sluggish ; there is a diminished blood supply, and 

 the appetite is gluttonous to such a degree that the bird 

 is positively dyspeptic ! The small size of the eggs and 

 their irregularities of colouring are a natural result of the 

 bird's constitution. The constitution is a natural result 

 of the bird's character. The males of the species are in 

 the majority and the female is polyandrous. There is no 

 true pairing and the relations between the sexes are 

 purely sexual. The birds are very quarrelsome and anti- 



