The Zoologist— Octobee, 1869. 1887 



lion in size is well linown to every oologist and every birdsnesting 

 school-boy." — p. 154. Thus it will be observed that the very ground 

 on which the theory stands is cut away ; and yet no one ever took 

 such pains to elucidate, explain and enforce the reception of a theory 

 as poor Baldamus — it was with him a life-study. His vast collection 

 of eggs had been repeatedly examined by the very men who ought to 

 have detected the mistake, and they did not : in fact, he says " Many 

 of these eggs, evidently so widely differing, have long been known as 

 cuckoo's eggs to our great ornithologists and oologists, such as Nau- 

 mann, Thienemann, Brehra, Gloger, Von Homeyer, Degland, &c." 

 ZooL. S.S. 1147. Thienemann, perhaps the highest authority of all, 

 was completely taken in by them : he accepts them without hesitation 

 as the eggs of the cuckoo, and says, at page 84 of his invaluable work, 

 " So much do many of these resemble the eggs of the wagtail, the 

 tree pipit, the field lark, and the great sedge warbler, that they can 

 only be distinguished from them by the distinctive spots and the 

 grain." No men ever gave such unremitting attention to a subject as 

 these German naturalists to this question of the cuckoo ; day after 

 day, year after year, they devoted themsehes to the inquiry. The 

 return of the cuckoo in the spring was hailed with delight as the 

 signal for renewed observation. But Mr. Sterland has other obser- 

 vations on the cuckoo, which I must extract. 



Tlie female Cuckoo cries, and "sticks little birds'' eggs to make its 

 voice clear.'''' — " Some have supposed that the cry of the cuckoo is only 

 uttered by the male bird, but this has been denied by many others ; I 

 disbelieve it myself, for I have positive proof that the note is uttered by 

 both sexes, from having shot the female when thus engaged. I have 

 met with undeniable proof of its egg-sucking propensities, for a friend 

 of mine shot one in a garden a short distance from my own, his 

 attention having been drawn to it by the well-known cry. As he went 

 into the garden the bird rose from the foot of the hedge, and was im- 

 mediately brought down ; when he picked it up it was not quite dead, 

 and, as he held it, it laid an egg in his hand, thus being another 

 instance of the female uttering the cry. The bill of this bird was 

 covered with yolk of egg, which was also spread over the feathers at 

 the base. On proceeding to the spot from which it rose, the cause of 

 this was at once seen ; for there was the nest of a pied wagtail with 

 all the eggs broken. It seemed as if the cuckoo had greedily plunged 

 her bill amongst them, and thus smeared the yolk over the feathers of 

 her face." — p. 157. 



