1152 The Zoologist — April, 1868. 



at the larger end more or less brownish red spots * which on one of 

 them form a zone ; the third has similar markings, but only sparingly 

 scattered over the whole surface ; whilst the fourth (which, together 

 with many others of undoubted authenticity, was sent me by the 

 obliging kindness of Count Rodern) is without any marking at all : 

 herein it is identical with one in the possession of Dr. Dehne (Naum. 

 iii. 2, p. 203), which is uniformly light greenish blue, without any 

 markings whatsoever.? 



3. Three which were found in the nests of Rubecula have exactly 

 the same yellowish white ground and brownish cinnamon markings as 

 the eggs of the redbreast, only that they are somewhat more distinct 

 and more determined, while the spots are larger and extend over the 

 whole surface, but are very sparingly distributed in comparison with 

 the eggs of the redbreast ; still there are varieties of these latter which 

 very nearly resemble these cuckoo's eggs. 



4. A cuckoo's egg, which I myself this year took out of the nest of 

 Lusciola luscioia,t can only be distinguished by its size and grain 

 ["das korn"] from the three eggs of the nightingale which were lying 

 in the nest with it: I saw the hen cuckoo at different times near this 

 nest, and I took her egg as soon as it was laid. To my regret two 

 neighbouring nests of the nightingale, which this hen cuckoo'', also 

 visited, were destroyed, perhaps by herself (might it not be because 

 the clutch § brooded on was in too forward a state to suit her later 

 eggs?), and so I found no other eggs in this district of Diebziger 

 Thicket, although it had been especially rich in nightingales. 



5. The six cuckoo's eggs which were found in the nests of Sylvia 

 cinerea, and which resemble in some cases the lighter, in others the 

 darker varieties of the eggs of that bird, are of a dirtyish light or 

 darker greenish white colour, thinly or thickly marked with under 

 spots of ash-gray and upper spots of a dirty olive-green. 



7. The nest of Sylvia hortensis furnished me with four cuckoo's 

 eggs, one of which I received through the courtesy of Count Rodern : 

 they are of a dirty yellow-white ground colour, with under spots 



* There occur also eggs of Kuticilla phoenicurus and Saxicola cenanthe with 

 similar markings. 



f M. Gerbe, in Paris, has a third plain cuckoo's egg, without spots, of an uniform 

 verdigris-green colour, taken from a nest of Saxicola stapaaina. It appears that all 

 the chats should be added to swell the number of the rearers of the cuckoo. 



X By mistake Sylvia nisoria is put in the text for this bird. 



§ " Die Brut." We hare no word exactly answering to this. 



