The Zoologist — April, 1873. 3475 



themselves have seen : perhaps however I shall be forgiven if 

 I surmise that in each of these cases the young cuckoo had, either 

 from the untimely end of its real mother, or from some other 

 unforeseen accident, been left on the horns of a dilemma ; and 

 that then it had been taught by nature to exert itself to its utmost 

 in order to obtain that sole possession of the nest which was almost 

 necessary to its existence : not however in the period of its first 

 infancy, when it would have been incapable of any such exertion, 

 but in process of time, as it began to acquire strength enough to 

 enable it to raise itself on its legs ; and even then, be it observed, 

 not always with success, as in the instance which Mr. Briggs so 

 confidently puts forward as witnessed by himself, the young cuckoo, 

 upon repeated attempts, signally failed to effect the ejection of its 

 comrade, until aided by Mr. Briggs. However I proceed to state 

 the evidence by Dr, Dybowski, as he gives it in his valuable com- 

 munication to the ' Journal fiir Ornithologie.' * 



" With regard to the theory that the newly-hatched cuckoo turns 

 the young of its foster-mother, either mechanically or involuntarily, 

 out of the nest, I cannot declare myself to coincide, since I have 

 facts to produce which tend to quite different conclusions. For we 

 found in an uninhabited valley near the river Alengui, in Dauria, a 

 nest of Anthus Ricardi. It was inserted in a depression at 

 the foot of a rather large heap of earth, whose surface up above 

 projected over the nest on all sides to a considerable extent. In 

 this nest there was only a young, still quite unfledged cuckoo, and 

 from two to three days could barely have elapsed since it had crept 

 forth from the egg. Not far from the nest two young pipits were 

 lying, which were certainly still alive, though extremely feeble ; 

 and a little farther off, a similar young bird already dead. As we 

 took the little birds in our bands, it was apparent that their crops 

 were full and their stomachs also well filled. Nevertheless the 

 poor things were so exceedingly cold that they gave hardly any 

 distinguishable signs of life. Now the question arises, what could 

 be the reason of this (at all events, to say the least of it,) involun- 

 tary abiding of the above-named young birds outside their nest ? 

 The young cuckoo certainly could not have caused it, as he was still 

 much too young for such a task ; the young pipits themselves could 

 not have got out of the nest, because it lay much too deep down for 



* Vol. xix for 1871, pp. 393 — 4. Zur Fortpflanzuiigsgescliiclite des Kukkuks. 

 Briefliclie Mittlieilung aus Ost-Sibirien. 



