'^°'g^^] Recetit Literature. -^ ^^ y 



adequate description, and a paragraph each on 'Distribution' and 

 'Habits, etc' The work is thus in the nature of a 'hand-book,' and 

 will prove invaluable to all interested in Indian ornithology'. — J. A. A. 



Gurney's ' The Economy of the Cuckoo.' — Although so much has been 

 written about the Common Cuckoo of Europe ( Citctdiis canorus), theie 

 are many points in its history, according to Mr. Gurnev, still not well 

 known. " Cuckoo's eggs," he says, " and all that appertains to them, is an 

 inexhaustible subject when naturalists meet in conclave, and it is one 

 which has a fascination for e\'ery oologist .... Cuckoo's eggs often, hut 

 by no means always in this countr\, whate^ei' ma\- be the case on the 

 Continent, bear a curiously protective resemblance to the eggs of the 

 .foster-bird. To the late August Baldamus belongs the credit of this 

 discovery, though Professor Newton has pointed out thut in the second 

 century CElian had almost arrived at the truth .... What is argued, bv 

 Baldamus and others since him, is that each individual Cuckoo is parasitic 

 to one or two species, and has power to lay onlv one tvpe of egg.... 

 Further it seems reasonable to suppose that any Cuckoo will by prefer- 

 erence lay in the nest of the species which brought her up. That each 

 individual Cuckoo lays its own type of egg, season after season, and 

 that in nineteen cases out of twenty it lays that egg on the ground, .... 

 and taking it in its mouth flies or crawls to a nest already known, is 

 established, and hardly requires any further proof .... That Cuckoos 

 habitually carry away one or more of the fosterer's eggs is now bevond 

 dispute, and they might be expected to continue watching a fosterer's 

 nest which they had not yet robbed, in the hope of doing so." This is 

 supposed to be their purpose when seen hanging about in the immediate 

 vicinity of a nest they have chosen for the deposition of one of their own 

 eggs, rather than solicitude for its safety. 



Much proof is also advanced as to the egg-eating propensity of the 

 Cuckoo, the mashed shells of at least seven eggs having been takino- 

 from the stomach of a single Cuckoo. The old Cuckoos are also accused 

 of removing nestlings from the nest of the fosterer, and the charge is 

 sustained by much circumstantial and some very satisfactorv evidence, 

 the purpose being apparently to secure more abundant nourishment for 

 their own young. 



It is a disputed question whether or not Cuckoos ever feed their own 

 young. Mr. Gurney believes " that this departure from the Cuckoo's 

 ordinary habits does take place under very rare circumstances.'" and that 

 further verification of it will be forthcoming. Mr. Gurnev also refers 

 to the "supposed pouch '" or " throat pocket" of the Cuckoo, for carrvino- 



'The Economy of the Cuckoo {Cuciihts canorus). By J. H. Gurney. F. Z 

 S. Trans, of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' .Societv. Vol. VI, pp. 36c;- 

 oS4- 



