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



he writes, " Cuculus micropterus is the most common cuckoo in Murree, 

 iind we took seven eggs this year, all but one in nests of Larvivora 

 brunnea (The Indian Blue- Chat). I will describe three I took. 



" No. I, Murree, 27th May 1899.— One egg, fresh, in nest of 

 Troclialopterum lineatum (The Himalayan Streaked Laughing Thrush). 

 At first I put this down to canorus, but when we, in June and July, 

 went on finding blue eggs, we, knowing this was the only other large 

 cuckoo breeding there, came to the conclusion it must be micropterus. 



l< I found the nest of T. lineatum building about ten days earlier, 

 and on the 24th there were three eggs in it, all undoubtedly belonging 

 to the owner of the nest. On the 27th I passed agaiu and, looking in, saw 

 two eggs only in the nest and two broken eggs outside and a lot of 

 blue-grey feathers on the bush. I examined the eggs and found one 

 smaller, thinner and clearer in shell and also of a much paler blue, so I 

 took both. The nest was on the ground in the middle of the roots of a 

 thick bush, and the cuckoo evidently lost some feathers going in. The 

 egg is a pale clear blue and in size *83 by '70." 



Now the only cuckoos to whom the above blue-grey feathers could 

 have balonged are C. canorus, saturatus, poliocephalus and micropterus 

 and H. sparverioides, nisicolor, varius and nanus. H. nanus is not found 

 in Kashmir, so may be dismissed at once. C. saturatus and poliocephalus 

 have been shewn to lay totally different eggs. I shall shew that all the 

 Hawk-cuckoos are now also known to lay eggs quite different to this 

 one, so that it leaves only canorus and micropterus to be dealt with. 

 Now hitherto no authentic blue egg of canorus has been taken, and the 

 texture of this egg and others of the same kind is so totally unlike any 

 canorus egg that I do not believe for a minute they belong to that bird. 

 Again canorus appears to stop calling, and therefore presumably breeding 

 in June, whereas these eggs were found well on into July. 



Yet, again, micropterus is even more common, than canorus, and if 

 a number of canorus eggs of the usual type are found, why should none 

 of the micropterus be found ; if found, these alone can be the eggs. 

 Under the circumstances, and by elimination, I think Col. Rattray has 

 proved his case, and I, for one, accept these blue eggs as belonging to 

 micropterus until better arguments are advanced to shew that they 

 are not. 



After describing the above egg taken in the nest of Trochalopterum 

 lineatum Col. Rattray goes on to describe two other eggs, both taken in 



