VOL. XIV.] LETTERS. 26S 



considerable district around this particular small " common land," 

 it would, I think, be of additional interest if he had also given 

 particulars of the other variations and numbers obtained. Might I 

 also suggest that in every instance where the eggs are not actually 

 found b}^ him personally in situ, they should be clearly recorded as 

 such, as rewards given indiscriminately to an unlimited number of 

 searchers do not, as is within my knowledge, give reliable scientific 

 results. Personally, I am not yet satisfied that the large series of 

 eggs taken have been proved to be the product of the one Cuckoo 

 and not the eggs of two or more closely related females. The Cuckoo 

 is always common in that particular neighbourhood, and a number 

 of females always frequent the area imder consideration. I have in 

 mind other localities where I have known the same type of egg to 

 occur for very many years past, practically to the exclusion of any 

 other variation — no doubt the layings of closely related birds, inherit- 

 ing, as I believe is usual, one particular type. Again I have known 

 eggs identically the same in marking found at a distance of two miles, 

 and another instance of fully two miles and a half apart. If in each 

 case they were the product of one female, it proves what an unrestricted 

 area thej' will sometimes cover, and the lack of chosen fosterers — 

 Reed-Warblers {Acrocephalns scirpaceJts) in both instances — could not 

 be the explanation, as numbers of such nests with incompleted clutches 

 were so much closer at hand sufficient, indeed, if the laying of the 

 Cuckoo is so prolific, to have produced even more startling results 

 than those recorded. My personal experience of the proportion of 

 Reed-Warblers used as fosterers by the Cuckoo in the locality referred 

 to works out at about lo per cent. 



That one female Cuckoo does not necessarily dominate any favoured 

 locality is, I think, well known, but an interesting instance came 

 under my observation last year when my son and I found three distinct 

 variations of eggs on the same day and all within a distance of 200 yards. 



Referring to the remarks on the rapidity with which the egg of the 

 Cuckoo is laid and deposited within the nest, this I feel is also open to 

 considerable doubt. Is it not more probable that the eggs were in 

 each instance laid at some distance from the selected nest and then 

 brought to the site of observation before being deposited, and this 

 further process at times being considerably delayed, perhaps owing 

 to the presence of the observers themselves. 



Apart from the observations under criticism I should like to ask if 

 any of your readers with personal experience of finding two eggs of 

 Cuckoo within one nest have been satisfied they were actually the 

 product of the same female. J. S. Elliott. 



DowLES Manor, Bewdley. 



Sirs, — In my notes on Cuckoos I find the following which may 

 be worth recording : — 



On May 20th, 1895, a Cuckoo laid an egg in a nest of the Cirl 

 Bunting (Emberiza cirlns). The nest was not completed, and the 

 Cirl Bunting laid her first egg on 23rd. She laid four eggs, and 

 I then took away the Cuckoo's egg as we preferred that she should 

 rear her own brood. This was near Boldre, Hants. 



On June 12th, 1918, a Cuckoo laid an egg in a nest from which 

 six young Wood-Warblers (Phylloscopus sibiJatrix) had flown four 

 days previously ! This was in Kent. 



E. G. B. Meade-Waldo. 

 Hever, Kent. 



