The Zoologist— April 1868. 1155 



23. The eggs from the nest of Emberiza citrinella has just the same 

 hair-streaks, or (as Dr. von Middendorf calls them) "vermiform lines" 

 [" vvurmlinien' 1 ] of the bunting's [" ammereier"] eggs; whilst — 



24. The egg which was found in the nest of Linola cannabina has 

 a light-green ground colour, with a few reddish brown spots. 



This is the description of the cuckoo's eggs now lying before me, 

 which resemble the eggs of the foster-parents. But there must be 

 added to the list — 



26. One which was described by Dr. Dehne (Naum. iii. 2, p. 203) 

 which was laid in a cage by a cuckoo that was caught in a hay-loft, 

 and which was very probably destined for a nest of Ruticilla tithys, 

 though R. phcenicurus also sometimes builds its nest on and in 

 buildings. The light-greenish blue egg, without any markings, might 

 have passed for the egg of either species of the redstarts [" roth- 

 schwanzarten"] ; for those also belonging to R. tithys — that is to say, 

 of certain pairs — are sometimes of a greenish-white colour. 



27. Herr Leon Olph. Galliard describes a cuckoo's egg which he 

 had taken out of a nest of Emberiza miliaria, as very similar to the 

 eggs of that bird. I even conjecture that the supposed bunting's 

 egg ["ammerei"], which this excellent observer found in the oeso- 

 phagus of a cuckoo which he had killed, was the egg belonging to the 

 bird killed by him, and which she had thus in her beak in order to 

 carry it in this manner to a nest which otherwise would have been 

 inaccessible to her.* (S. Naum. iii. 1, p. 106.) 



28. The cuckoo's egg which was found in the nest of Loxia chloris, 

 together with other eggs of that bird, by Herr Pralle, Secretary at the 



* II does not at all tell against this view that the dead bird had the egg in her 

 oesophagus, for iu her fright she had swallowed it. That the cuckoo avails itself of its 

 beak to place ils eggs in many nests is a prion established, for there are cases in 

 which no other means are at all possible; besides many a hen cuckoo has been killed 

 which had its own egg in its mouth. But in just such a case the whole proceeding 

 has been lately and accurately watched. A charcoal-burner in the Forest of Tliiiringer 

 had built his somewhat low forest-but in sloping ground, when a cuckoo (which he had 

 long observed flying about in the neighbourhood) flew into the hut, perched upon a 

 bench near the entrance, laid an egg, seized it in her beak, and placed it in a 

 wren's [" zaunkonig's"] nest, which was built against the inner side of the hut. The 

 man, who knew nothing of the history of the propagation of the cuckoo, gazed on in 

 silence, and full of astonishment at what was happening before his very eyes, and 

 afterwards related the "wonder" to Herr Madel, an actuary in Gotha, to whom I am 

 indebted for this very interesting communication. 



