1150 The Zoologist— April, 1868. 



kinds would have been found still greater, including nearly every 

 species of the genera Lanius, Saxicola, Pratincola, Ruticilla, Lusciola, 

 Sylvia, Phyllopneuste, Hypolais, Calamoherpe, Calamodyta, Accentor, 

 Regulus, Motacilla, Budytes, Anthus, Alauda, Emberiza, and even 

 Fringilla: all these would have been known as foster-parents of 

 the cuckoo, if we had recognized as such all those cuckoos 1 eggs 

 which had been found in their nests, especially those of peculiar 

 colouring.* 



When Dr. Thienemann wrote his description he had before him 

 twenty-five specimens from different countries of Europe. Of these 

 the colouring changes from simple white to a yellowish, grayish or 

 greenish tinge. Those with a white ground are sparingly spotted : 

 the under markings are ash-gray; then follow gray or greenish 

 brown dots, little specks or compound points, upon these light or 

 dark and generally circular spots, with the edges frequently shaded 

 down. 



Those single spots, which sharply contrast with the ground colour, 

 are in the greater number of the eggs extremely characteristic, and 

 only in very rare cases are they entirely wanting. Those with darker 

 ground colour generally have the spots in three distinct shades of the 

 ground colour. In many cases they are indistinct, but very thickly 

 distributed over the whole space, sometimes thicker at the larger end, 

 where they occasionally form an indistinct zone. 



I have now lying before me more than sixty specimens of my 

 own collection, and more than half as many more, which have 

 been forwarded to me by the kinduess of the Counts Rodern, 

 Schallehne, Vogel and others. The collections of these and of 

 the Messieurs Kunz, Passler, Habicht, Hoffmann and Pralle con- 

 tain about a hundred specimens. Thus I have ample materials 

 before me. 



These eggs t are taken out of the nests of the following Insessores, 

 and accord in colouring and marking with the eggs of the birds in 

 whose nests they were found : — 



* Certainly I can assert nothing positive of my own knowledge, although it is by 

 no means improbable that Muscicapa also and Sturnus belong to the above list. The 

 striking fact that even the corn-eating warblers bring up cuckoos is established beyond 

 all question (S. Naumannia, a. d. a. O), and is thus explained— that the latter feed 

 their young, at any rate at first, with insects. 



f In addition to these there are about twenty specimens, chiefly of a gray-green 

 and whitish colouring (Nos. 6, 11, 16 and 20) from unknown localities. 



