The Zoologist— April, 1868. 1165 



of the species of her own peculiar type, as we may say, is 



not ready. 



E. Baldamus. 



After the above paper had been concluded, I received further in- 

 formation from that excellent observer, Mr. Inspector R. Tobias, of 

 Leipzig. I hasten to add it as belonging to this place. 



"Although 1, too, have found continually that the eggs of our 

 cuckoo are like the eggs of that bird into whose nest each intrudes its 

 egg (for I found in the nests of the reed wrens [" rohrsanger"] greenish, 

 in those of the tree pipits [" baumpieper "J reddish, and in those of the 

 whitethroats [" grasmiicker"] whitish and greenish eggs); still I am not 

 of opinion that each hen lays eggs of always the same colour, but in 

 the course of the summer lays eggs of very different colours, according 

 to the eggs of the nest which she uses. The following fact will prove 

 it: — In a small pond, sparingly overgrown with reeds (Phragmitis 

 communis), I found a nest of Calamoherpe turdina, in which, close to 

 the very vividly coloured eggs of the warbler, was a cuckoo's egg of a 

 ground colour of so deep a green that till then no other like it had 

 ever occurred to me. But, within a circuit of half a mile, no other 

 pond existed in which a reed wren (neither C. turdina nor yet C. arun- 

 dinacea) was breeding, while the cuckoos, on the contrary, were more 

 numerous, so that in the above-mentioned district at least three pairs 

 had their abode: under these circumstances the hen cuckoo which 

 laid the egg described was obliged to be content with the nest of some 

 other species of warbler, and therefore in all probability to lay eggs of 

 quite a different colour. The following fact seems to speak still more 

 plainly in favour of this view : — In the year 1842, on a certain estate, 

 there were made, out of some old fish-ponds, some meadows, which, on 

 account of their former occupation, were obliged to be intersected with 

 high banks, upon which stood many trees and a great deal of bush ; 

 consequently they were inhabited by many whitethroats : but a pair 

 of cuckoos had also fixed their quarters there, and laid their eggs 

 partly in the nests of Sylvia cinerea, partly in those of S. hortensis. 

 All the cuckoo's eggs were move or less like those of the warbler, by 

 the side of which they lay, only that each cuckoo's egg had upon it 

 several dark spots. The fourth was laid in the nest of S. hortensis, 

 which contained eggs of a peculiar colouring : three of them had a 

 grayish while ground colour, with very few markings ; two were uni- 

 formly grayish white. The cuckoo's egg which was lying by them was 



