3468 The Zoologist — April, 1873. 



near the Hoe. Several knots have been lately killed in the neigh- 

 bourhood; they are unusually plentiful this season — indeed I rarely 

 see any after the autumn. 



Glaucous Gull, S^c. — February 25lh. Observed an immature 

 glaucous gull and another purple sandpiper ; also examined a 

 blackthroated diver lately killed. 



Lesser Blackbacked Gull, S)C. — February 26th. Chaffinches in 

 full song. Lesser blackbacked gulls seem to have taken the place 

 of the greater, which have left since the abatement of the late 

 gales. 



John G atcombe. 



8, Lower DurnforJ Street, Stonehouse, Plymouth. 



Erratum. — Zool. S. S. 3443, two lines from bottom, for blackheaded read black- 

 backed. 



The Tlieory of Dr. Baldamus as regards the Cuckoo's Egg. 

 By W. C. IIewitson, Esq. 



I CANNOT read Mr. Smith's paper, and I do not believe that 

 any one else who took part in the former controversy with regard 

 to the eggs of the cuckoo can read it, without coming to the con- 

 clusion that it is a personal attack upon myself, and as such T 

 accept it. I am at least one of the " would-be" ornithologists men- 

 tioned by him, and if an intense love of the glorious works of the 

 Creator, and birds amongst the rest, makes an ornithologist, I was 

 one probably before he was hatched : further that ray love of truth, 

 which he seems to think he monopolises, is as strong as my love of 

 Nature, and it was the impulse of both of these feelings which led 

 me to attack a theory which I believed to be a libel on both. 



I have now read Mr. Smith's translation of Dr. Baldamus's theory 

 carefully, and I must begin by confessing that I did the Dr. some 

 wrong by attributing to \\\m the notion that the cuckoo can colour 

 its eggs at will, when Herr Kunz ought to enjoy the credit of this 

 brilliant notion. I was, however, misled by Mr. Smilh himself, 

 who now accuses me of an " ingenious perversion of the theory," 

 because I copied from his own paper in- the 'Zoologist' (Zool. 

 S. S. 1112) the words, — which, to make them more impressive, are 

 there printed in italics, — " that the cuckoo is able to assiuiilate 

 them (its eggs) in colour to the eggs of those birds whose nests she 

 selects," and this he there states is the opinion of Dr. Baldamus 



