82 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVII. 



which occur here at that elevation are Cuculus canorus, saturahis, 

 poliocephalus and micropterus and Hierococcyx sparverioides." 



Colonel Rattray's and Brooks' discoveries settle once and for all what 

 is the main type of the egg laid by the Cuculus saturatus, and so far there 

 is no reason to suppose that this cuckoo lays any other type of egg. 



The eggs mentioned above are for the most part almost perfect 

 ellipses in shape, one or two inclined to be somewhat pointed at both 

 ends, and in one case the egg is perhaps more oval than elliptical, the 

 smaller end differing distinctly in size from the other. 



The ground in each case is the same pure satiny-white, and the specks, 

 which are the only form of marking, except for a few microscopical 

 lines, are of dark amber or black, occasionally lighter and reddish. 

 They are generally sparsely scattered over the whole surface, sometimes 

 more numerous towards the larger end, where they rarely form a zone. 



The only egg I have seen differing from these was one brought to me 

 in a nest of Henicurus schistaceus (the Slaty-backed Forktail), which con- 

 tained four eggs of the owner of the nest in addition to the cuckoo's. It 

 is a perfect ellipse in shape, but the ground colour has a faint tinge of 

 green in it, and the markings are more numerous and larger than usual, 

 and are of a dull light reddish with a few underlying ones of purple-grey. 

 The texture is like that of the others, and it measures "84" by '58". This 

 egg may not, of course, be saturatus, but it is a cuckoo's egg of some 

 kind, and is more like the authentic ones of that species than any other. 



All the eggs have an exceedingly fine, closely grained shell, very 

 smooth and very fragile for their size, the shell being very thin, 

 although so compact. 



The eggs which have passed through my hands, or about which I 

 have obtained measurements, vary between '80" and "89" in length and 

 •52" and '&' in breadth, the average of a dozen being *85" by *55". 



Dresser, quoting Taczonowski, describes the eggs as " pale-greyish, 

 marked with innumerable irregular pale violet shell-spots and brown 

 surface spots or blotches which are more numerous round the larger end, 

 and measure 0'92" by 069", that is to say, the eggs are said to be just 

 like a common type of egg of Cuculus canorus. I leave my readers to 

 judge for themselves whether these can be accepted or not. 



Almost as curious as the " Ibis " history of the common cuckoo 

 hatching its own egg are Oapt. Hutton's remarks on the manner in which 

 this cuckoo sometimes returns to feed young birds of the same species, 



