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



Hume himself records the snaring of one of these birds on a nest of 

 Molpastes bengalensis (The Bengal Red-vented Bulbiil). 



Mr. T. R. Bell writes me : — " I have several eggs of Cacomantis pas- 

 serinus (The Indian Plaintive Cuckoo). I have seen Orthotonus feeding- 

 young Cacomantis a fair number of times, and about the eggs of this 

 cuckoo baing ordinarily laid in Tailor-birds' nests I have not the 

 slightest doubt, The cuckoos' eggs are, as a rule, less blotched (being 

 nearly always spotted and not blotched) than those of the Warbler and, 

 of course, a great deal larger. I have four eggs of Cacomantis taken 

 from the nests of Orthotomus, and they are three of them white and one 

 bluish, of the two shades that occur in the Warblers' eggs." These 

 notes are recorded from Kanara. 



Mr. J. Davidson, C.S., writes in much the same strain: — "I have 

 eo-o-s of this cuckoo taken at Karwar (24th June, 1894, 12th July, 1895, 

 20th July, 1895, and 10th August, 1895), and have seen many more. 

 All were taken in the nests of 0. sutorius (The Indian tailor-bird). 

 They are very similar to one type of the eggs of this bird, but are about 

 half as large again, white with a few reddish spots, mainly at the large 

 end. All the eggs which I have taken myself have the ground colour 

 white, but' Mr. Bell tells me that he has taken several with the ground 

 colour blue. I have several times taken a white egg of this bird in a 

 blue clutch of Tailor-birds' eggs." 



Mr. B. B. Osmaston was also good enough to lend me an egg of 

 this species taken in the nest of P. socialis (The Ashy Wren- Warbler) 

 in Dehra Dun. This is of the blue type, and is the exact facsimile 

 of one of the eggs taken by Miss Oockburn and depicted in the Catalogue 

 of the Eggs of the British Museum. This is the egg I have sheim in 

 Plate III., Kig. 13. It measures "70" by '50". 



Col. Rattray informs me that he has taken an egg from the nest 

 of Pericrocotus peregrinus (The Small Minivet), which is the exact 

 counterpart of the above egg and must belong to C. p>asserinus : it 

 measures '71" by *50". 



An eco- from the Irvine collection, but now in mine, agrees well with 

 Miss Cockburn's eggs, but is rather smaller, measuring '73" by *54" ; the 

 ground colour is the same pale blue-green, but the markings consist of 

 reddish specks, spots, blotches and smears of pale reddish-brown, with 

 more sparse sub-markings of lavender and pale reddish-grey. In shape 

 it is not quite such a long oval as is usual. 



