OCCASIONAL NOTES. 59 
mammals are almost unknown, by which it has come to prefer an auimal to 
a vegetable diet, was first described in 1871 by Mr. T. H. Potts (‘ Nature,’ 
vol. iv., p. 489); but it was reserved for Mr. De la Tour to discover the inte- 
resting result which Mr. Wood has just introduced to English naturalists.— 
Henry T. Wuarron (39, St. George’s Road, N.W.) 
Two Species oF Birds LAYING 1N THE SAME NeEst.—There is ample 
evidence that the Partridge and the Pheasant will occasionally lay their 
eggs in the nest of another of their respective species (Yarrell’s ‘ British 
Birds,’ 2nd ed., pp. 312, 872): that the barn-door fowl is much addicted to 
the same cuckoo-like propensity (Waterton’s ‘ Essays,’ vol. i., p. 264): and 
that ducks (and especially the Hider duck) is apt to perpetrate the same 
vagaries (Rennie’s ‘ Architecture of Birds,’ p. 74): while the occasional 
habit of clubbing together for a joint nest on the part of other birds of the 
same species, such as Jackdaws and Long-tailed Tits, has been positively 
asserted by some (Zool., 1st ser., pp. 1775, 2567). Moreover, that the 
Partridge will sometimes lay her eggs in a Pheasant’s nest, and the Guinea 
- Hen in a Partridge’s nest, has been authoritatively declared (Zool., 1st ser., 
pp- 186, 454), and I suppose we may assume with tolerable certainty that, 
under certain exceptional circumstances which we cannot fathom, such an 
unusual proceeding may be looked for among birds in general. Within 
little more than a twelvemonth two of these exceptional cases have been 
brought to my notice. The first occurred in June, 1878, when I was asked 
by the finder to examine an egg which he had taken from a Partridge’s nest, 
but could not recognise, the said nest containing eight Partridge’s eggs and 
five of these interlopers. There was not the smallest doubt in my mind, as 
soon as I saw it, that the strange egg was that of the Red-legged Partridge, 
and I should not have been at all surprised at the occurrence on the part of 
a gallinaceous bird, which seems in some degree addicted to such ways, but 
from the extreme rarity with which Perdix rufa ocenrs in this neighbour- 
hood ; for it is only as a rare straggler that this species is seen once in several 
years in this district. Now the fact that the eggs of P. rufa were found in 
the nest of P. cinerea is a plain proof that a hen bird of the former species 
had strayed into that locality, and yet I could not ascertain that a single 
specimen of that species had been seen before or after the eggs were found, 
though that some young Red-legged Partridges were hatched out I firmly 
believe, both because the egg bronght to me contained an embryo chick 
within a very few days of hatching, and because my informant subsequently 
saw the fragments of shells near the nest, such as are usually seen after 
hatching. This is only another proof of that which I recognise more fully 
every day—what a very small portion in reality do we see and know of the 
birds and their habits with which we think ourselves so familiar! Not so 
remarkable, perhaps, in the eyes of some ornithologists, is my second 
