The Zoologist— April, 1873. 3469 



himself, and I leave it to you and your readers to determine which 

 of us has perverted the truth. 



Mr. Smith is angry with English ornithologists, and accuses us 

 of "indolent reluctance" because we have not been able to find 

 evidence in support of Dr. Baldamus' theory. I have certainly 

 felt some surprise that he and those who think as he does have 

 not themselves brought forth in the past five years some evidence 

 in its favour without going to Germany to seek it. That I may 

 avoid making a second mistake, I will copy Mr. Smith's present 

 interpretation of the Baldamus theory " that every hen cuckoo lays 

 all her eggs of one colouring only, and consequently (as a general 

 rule) lays only in the nest of one species," and I hope that Air. 

 Smith will not be offended if in "pleasantry" I translate this 

 sentence into my own words, as I did before, that each species of 

 bird honoured by its patronage has a family cuckoo. 



With the first half of this sentence, " that every hen cuckoo lays 

 all her eggs of one colouring only," I entirely agree, and will take 

 it as my text; but that the instinct of each cuckoo leads it to lay 

 its eggs amongst those of one species of bird only with which they 

 shall agree iu colour, is to nie utterly absurd. Nature, however 

 lavish, never wastes her resources, and I argue that this ingenious 

 theory would be entirely wasted in deceiving birds which need no 

 deception, and will sit with equal assiduity upon eggs of any colour, 

 or upon pieces of chalk substituted in their places. I affirm that, 

 as far as our English cuckoos are concerned and our experience 

 goes, they invariably lay their eggs of gray or grayish brown, 

 irrorated throughout with darker brown and marked always by 

 some minute black spots, and that those eggs are laid, in the 

 majority of cases, amongst the blue eggs of the hedgesparrow. 

 Out of seven cuckoos' eggs in my own pleasure-ground six were iu 

 the nests of the hedgesparrow. It would require some research in 

 the female, and she would have to carry her egg for a long time in 

 her mouth before she could find any eggs less in harmony with 

 her own ; and since our cuckoos do not and will not lay blue eggs, 

 shall we (as Sir Joseph Banks is said to have done to the fleas) 

 anathematise them, or shall we come to the conclusion that our 

 gray skies are to blame ? 



Mr. Smith extols the Germans for their "painstaking and very 

 persevering diligence," and gives us long tables to prove it; but 

 I contend that it is all worthless, and that they have no proof 



SECOND SERIES — VOL. VIII. S 



