282 Cuculidce. 



of the character, ground colour, and markings of the eggs of the 

 species in whose nests they were severally laid : while some are 

 so extremely similar that but for the grain* or texture of the 

 shell and certain characteristic specks, it would be difficult to 

 distinguish them apart. The exceptions to this general rule 

 are those laid in the nests of corn-eating species, and our author 

 adds that it would be extraordinary indeed if the Cuckoo's 

 eggs should resemble the eggs of these exceptional and never 

 intended foster-parents. 



' The fact then' (says Dr. Baldamus) ' is quite established and 

 beyond all doubt, that there are Cuckoos' eggs which both in 

 colour and in marking are very like the eggs of those species in 

 whose nests they are generally laid :' and then he proceeds to 

 argue that Nature, who never trifles, nor acts without purpose, 

 has plainly given the parent Cuckoo this faculty in order to 

 facilitate the continuance of the species under peculiar conditions, 

 for (he well remarks) had this not been so, we are driven to the 

 alternative that the Warblers and others, which generally recog- 

 nise so easily all strange eggs, casting them out of the nest,t or 

 else deserting it, in regard to the Cuckoo's eggs are quite blind, 

 and cannot recognise the red eggs among their green clutches,:}: 

 and vice versa. Therefore (continues our author) I do not 

 hesitate to set forth, as a law of nature, that the eggs of the 

 Cuckoo are in a very considerable degree coloured and marked 

 like the eggs of those birds in whose nests they are about to be laid, 

 in order that they might the less easily be recognised by the 

 foster-parents as substituted. 



* ' Das Kornj the German word exactly answering to our English idiom 

 'grain.' The grain or texture of the shell is too often overlooked by 

 oologists, but amongst the very similar eggs of some species, as more par- 

 ticularly among the Duck tribe, this is one very important means of identifi- 

 cation, more especially when the egg is placed under a low magnifying 

 power. 



t Montagu's ' Ornith. Diet.,' Introduction, p. iv. 



J Or ' loiters ' as our Wiltshire rustics say : ' gelege ' in German. 



It is worthy of remark, that whereas it has been often asserted that the 

 egg of the Cuckoo is by no means found in any proportion to the number of 

 old birds (for it is not a rare species, and every female would seem to lay 



