THE OOLOGY OF INDIAN PARASITIC CUCKOOS. 79 



cuckoo trying to match its eggs with those of the intended foster-mother 

 or that it selects a foster-mother whose eggs shall match its own. Not 

 one of my correspondents has advanced this suggestion, and there appears 

 to be little doubt that convenience of site and propinquity to the cuckoo 

 about to lay its egg is the main requisition. We may, probably, also 

 assume that, under normal circumstances, the female cuckoo lays its egg- 

 on the ground and carries it in her mouth until she finds a suitable nest 

 in which to deposit it. Hume actualty shot a cuckoo carrying an egg- 

 in its mouth, and the situation, or shape, of the nest selected in many 

 other cases shows that the cuckoo could place her egg in it by no 

 other means. This mode of procedure is greatly facilitated by the 

 fact that most cuckoos lay eggs which are very small in proportion to 

 themselves and are provided with wide mouths and curiously flexible 

 gapes. 



An egg of the Cuckoo taken by Mr. S. L. Whymper in the nest of 

 Anthus rosaceus in the Liddar Valley, Kashmir, so closely resembled the 

 four eggs of the fosterer that it was some time before Mr. Whymper 

 realized that he had a Cuckoo's egg and put down the clutch as an 

 abnormally large one of Anthus rosaceus. 



In the Ibis for 1889, p. 219, is given a translation of an article from 

 " Gartenlaube," Vol. XXVII, showing that the cuckoo sometimes 

 hatches its own eggs and rears the young. It is too long to quote in 

 extenso, so only extracts are taken. 



" On the morning of the 16th May, 1888, ... a cuckoo rose 



suddenly out of the bushes close tome ... ...I soon discovered 



in a slight depression of the ground ... ...three eggs, which 



attracted my attention from not being all of the same colouration, and 

 from one of the three being of considerably smaller size than the other 

 two ... ...I resolved to conceal myself under a neighbouring 



hedge in order to watch the bird more closely. After I had been there 

 for a few moments, I saw the cuckoo alight on the ground and crawl 

 towards the place where the eggs were ... ...I remained in my 



hiding place at least three-quarters of an hour without seeing the cuckoo 



take its departure I therefore cautiously approached the 



spot and soon saw the cuckoo again rise from the ground 



"' I quickly withdrew to a rather more elevated position in the under- 

 wood of the beech forest Within six minutes the cuckoo came 



back, alighted near the resting-place, and proceeded with a characteristic 



