DOES THE CUCKOO INCUBATE ? 219 
type,” which are destined to be laid in the nests of one particular 
species of small bird, and are nearly the same colour as those of 
the foster-mother, and that she only lays them in the nests of 
this species, falls to the ground. 


QUERY—DOES THE CUCKOO INCUBATE? 
By Aportr WALTER.* 
In June of last year the ‘Gartenlaube’ astonished its readers 
with an article headed “The Cuckoo incubates.” This number 
of the periodical referred to was handed to me by a friend, with 
the words :—‘‘ Here is an important observation; the Cuckoo 
incubates.” I returned the paper without looking at it or asking 
who the author of the article was, and told my informant that it 
was either a joke or an invention, and that the Cuckoo was, as 
everybody knew, unable to incubate. * * ¥* ay 
I did not think of this article again until I received the J uly 
-humber of the ‘Zoologische Garten’ containing the same 
announcement. This caused me to give the article more 
attention, as its author proved to be the well-known ornithologist 
Adolf Miller. I was surprised, on reading it, to find that the 
writer still holds the opinion that the Cuckoo occasionally 
incubates, although it has been shown, by Dr. A. Brehm and 
others, that the observation made by Herr Kiessel, who 
thought he had seen a female Cuckoo sitting on two eggs, was 
unreliable, and that there was a confusion between the Cuckoo 
and the Nightjar (Caprimulgus). I was still more astonished 
when I had finished reading the article, which is worded in the 
most serious manner and with minute details of time and place. 
I could not but imagine that there was some mistake, for much of 
what the author relates, and relies upon to support his case, does 
not seem at all probable. In my opinion the observation can 
only be regarded as a delusion, and how easy it is to fall into 
error is only too well known. 
Herr Miller says that “this time certainly no voice will be 
Oe SS AE SESE ET EES TEES OBES roc hd 4 2 ee 
* For this translation from the ‘Journal fiir Ornithologie’ (Jan. 1889, 
pp. 383—46) we are indebted to Herr A. W. Kappel, who kindly undertook to 
prepare it at very short notice. For the sake of brevity, we have omitted 
several dispensable paragraphs.—Eb. 
82 
