VERTEBRATE ANIMALS OF LEICESTERSHIRE. 23 
one, apparently a male, of a deep buffy pink and pure white 
and black, resembling the most richly-coloured South European 
specimens (of which I have shot many), in the hands of Elkington. 
It had only been that day set up, and was shot at Great Peatling 
on May 11th, 1883, by Master Hall, of that place. Mr. W. A. 
Vice, M.B., has told me since then that another one was in its 
company. 
Fam. CucuLip®. 
Cuculus canorus, Linn. Cuckoo. — A summer migrant, gene- 
rally distributed, and laying its eggs in other birds’ nests as close 
to Leicester as at Aylestone and Knighton. Harley remarks that, 
although it chooses a foster-mother to hatch its egg or eggs, 
“yet when its offspring comes abroad on wing” he has “ noticed 
its anxiety to provide for the same, much in the manner of other 
birds,” and gives an example proving this.. He remarks also that 
“it is liable to albinism,” but this I cannot confirm. The Rev. 
A. Matthews, of Gumley, wrote in ‘The Zoologist,’ January, 
1885, p. 25, relative to an immature male found on July 12th, 
apparently killed by flying against a tent-rope in the garden, and 
he argues therefrom that the bird was migrating during the night. 
With all deference to my friend’s opinion, I would contend that the 
date is early for migration (a young bird was killed with a stone 
at “Forest Rock,” August 8th, 1882); and, secondly, that there 
is no evidence that it was not killed in the early morning during 
ordinary flight, as the late Mr. R. Widdowson wrote to me. “ Last 
spring (1883) I had four brought to me in one week, all killed by 
flying against windows.” Mr. Davenport writes, “‘ Found an egg 
in the nest of a Sedge Warbler in a small plantation near Ash- 
lands in June, 1883. The Cuckoo flew and settled on the nest, 
and remained there quite fifteen minutes.” Mr. Macaulay reports, 
“ April, 1881, Cuckoo in Wagtail’s nest at Saddington.” Ingram 
writes, ‘Becoming more numerous; the Wagtail, its favourite 
foster-mother, often rears the young in the precincts of the garden 
at Belvoir.” Mr. John Ryder, lodge-keeper at Belvoir Castle, 
informed me that in the spring of 1884 a Cuckoo laid an egg in 
a Robin’s nest built in a bank by the lodge, and the young 
Cuckoo was reared by the Robins. On June 28th, 1883, I went 
to see a young Cuckoo in a Hedgesparrow’'s nest, built in some 
sticks amidst a thick growth of nettles and thistles, not more than 
