The Zoologist — October, 1873. 3723 



A few Last Words on the Cuckoo Question. By the Rer. Alfred 



Charles Smith, M.A. 



[I intended, and almost promised, to exclude all communications on this 

 subject unless consisting " wholly or chiefly of facts ; " but Mr. Smith, the 

 originator of this discussion, in this his final paper, has given so fair, and 

 so inoffensive, a reviev? of the whole matter, and the hypothesis which he 

 now introduces to our notice is so ingenious, and is stated with so much 

 modesty, that I cannot hesitate about departing in this one instance from a 

 resolution made perhaps somewhat too hastily. — Edward Newman.] 



As T had the honour of introducing the question of the colouring 

 of cuckoo's eggs in the pages of the ' Zoologist' in 1868, and again 

 in the spring of this year, perhaps I may be allowed to reply to the 

 various expressions of opinion called forth in its pages ; or rather, 

 may be permitted to examine the conclusions to be derived from 

 these opinions, which I will try to do as fairly and impartially as 

 I can. 



(1) I think I may assume that the balance of opinion favours 

 the theory that the eggs of the cuckoo do vary in colour to a 

 considerable extent. I hasten to add that there are some, and 

 good ornithologists too, who deny this, and who even declare that 

 the eggs of the cuckoo are of peculiarly unvarying colour; but it 

 will not be disputed that those who so think, or at all events who 

 have so declared their opinion, are in a very small minority. 



(2) In the next place I venture to say that it has been pretty 

 generally allowed that the eggs of the cuckoo strangely resemble 

 the eggs of other birds, especially those among which the egg 

 of the cuckoo is frequently found. In the view of the German 

 ornithologists, so often quoted in previous papers, this is thought 

 to be the rule, though that view is qualified by the addition that 

 " to this rule there are very many exceptions.'''' In the opinions 

 of most of our English ornithologists, however, it seems to be 

 considered that the rule is in favour of the colour generally 

 (perhaps conventionally) assigned by common consent to the 

 cuckoo's egg ; and the exceptions (also allowed to be numerous) 

 when the egg of that bird resembles those of the species in whose 

 nest it is laid. 



On these two points most of those who have examined the 

 question are, I think, agreed; but beyond this, opinions differ 



