The Zoologist— May, 1873. 3513 



take the opposite view in such discussions as this. (5.) As to the 

 charge of misleading Mr. Hewitson in the way that gentleraaiT 

 describes, and so of perverting the truth, I confidently leave the 

 verdict on this to unprejudiced readers. When Mr. Hewitson 

 quoted my words in the first instance, they were, I can assure him, 

 the words of the German Doctor himself; but it was not quite fair in 

 Mr. Hewitson to stop short at that sentence, and jump to the con- 

 clusion that the cuckoo (according to Baldamus) "could lay eggs 

 of what colour she pleased." In common fairness he should have 

 read farther on, when he would have found the Doctor saying, 

 "that the same cuckoo lays all her eggs of one colour and 

 markings only, and so is limited to the nests of but one species." 

 I need not, surely, remark how mischievous and how unfair it 

 is to quote a single sentence, and then ignore what follows; more 

 especially in a somewhat intricate question which requires exact 

 and full development, before the real view of its author is com- 

 prehended. (6.) Even if Mr. Hewitson was, as he says, " an 

 ornithologist probably before I was hatched Q.) I do not know' that I 

 ought to be precluded thereby from holding my own opinion, not- 

 withstanding his ipse dixit. Then, Mr. Hewitson must certainly be 

 a very old bird indeed, for I am a chicken which has seen half a 

 century go by, and so far as age was concerned I should have 

 thought myself now (if ever) qualified to form an opinion. However, 

 I most sincerely hope that Mr. Hewitson has many years yet 

 before him for ornithological work ; for that he has done good service 

 in the cause, with his beautiful book on the 'Eggs of British Birds' 

 before me, I am one of the first to allow; only 1 think that pre- 

 judice in favour of old opinions, and impatience of discoveries 

 hitherto unforeseen in one's favorite pursuits, may perchance attend 

 advancing years. Hence, too, perhaps the general distrust and 

 dislike of foreigners which Mr. Hewitson evidently entertains, and 

 which were too commonly felt by Englishmen in bygone years', but 

 which for the most part have now happily given place to 'less 

 prejudiced and more liberal sentiments. (7.) To distrust the 

 series of cuckoos' eggs which the German ornithologists have col- 

 lected with so much patience and care, and to disbelieve their 

 authenticity, is of course a very easy way of shelving the argu- 

 ment ; but I do not think this view will commend itself to many 

 who have marked with what admirable perseverance, and with what 

 infinite painstaking, those large collections were formed. Mr. 



