1208 The Zoologist— May, 1868. 



it twice in August, 1805, and again in the same month in 1807. 



(Nematus ?) * 



It will be evident to every naturalist who will condescend to peruse 

 these hasty notes, that doubtful points innumerable will have to be 

 cleared up ere the life history of the insects inhabiting these galls can 

 be written: happily we are not everywhere so far behind, as complete 

 biographies of many a lillle denizen of these "fairy palaces" are 

 already penned ; but even the numerous queries here advanced are 

 only a small part of the number still in store, so it is to be hoped that 

 as within the last luw years the snow-ball of truth- seeking in this field 

 has again been set in motion in this country, it will roll on, increasing 

 in strength and power, and that plenty of shoulders will be found 

 anxious to push it on, when it will have grown, as it almost has, too 

 cumbersome for the few hands it has hitherto occupied. 



Albert Mulllr. 



rciigo, S.E., March, 186S. 



Something about the Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus). 

 By T. R. Archer Beiggs, Esq. 



We live in a world of change truly, and it is wondrous to mark how 

 in this nineteenth century all the opinions of our grandsires, whether 

 on Theology, Natural History or any science whatsoever, are doomed 

 lo be turned topsy-turvy by the theories of this enlightened age. 



The Rev. Alfred Charles Smith, in his paper on the cuckoo in the 

 'Zoologist' for March, combats an established opinion, by telling us 

 that the famous Dr. Jenner has led many into error by having stated 

 that it is the young cuckoo that removes its foster-brethren from the 

 nest in which it is hatched, and affirms that it is the parent cuckoo 

 that does this. As regards this opinion 1 would observe that Mr. 

 Smith is at issue with Colonel Montagu, as well as with Dr. Jenner, 

 since that distinguished ornithologist tells us, in his ' Ornithological 

 Dictionary' that he agrees with that gentleman in respect to the 

 phenomenon of the infant bird throwing the eggs or young out of the 

 nest, and adds that he had ocular proof of the fact, for he saw a young 

 bird of this species repeatedly throw out a young swallow when this 

 was put in for the purpose of experiment. What I witnessed on the 



* Since writing the above, I have beeu informed by Mr. M'Lachlan that Mr. 

 Iuchbakl has bred this insect, but I cannot yet give more particulars. 



