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



This young bird died when about seven weeks old and was then 

 sent to me for identification, and is undoubtedly Caccomantis passerinus 

 in adult plumage and of the curious phase which has the underparts 

 concolourous with the back, but paler. 



The skin is incomplete and the under-plumage more or less absent, 

 so that whether the whole or only parts of the under-plumage was grey 

 or not, it was impossible to see. 



The following notes by Mr. T. Florence, of the Bank of Bengal, 

 Hyderabad, further confirms Professor Burnett ; he writes : " Nest 

 of Prinia socialis found 11th July 1906 containing four eggs. Three 

 of these eggs were of Prinia socialis while the fourth was a Cuckoo's, 

 Caccomantis passerinus. The Cuckoo's egg was half as large again as 

 the other and of a lighter colour, except at the large end, where the 

 colour was about the same as the Prinia socialis egg. Two of the 

 eco-s were hatched on the 15th July. I did not visit the nest on the 

 16th July, as it was a very wet day, but on visiting the nest on the 

 17th July the young Cuckoo was the sole possessor of the nest. I 

 could find no trace of the other birds or eggs. 



" The Cuckoo left the nest, full fledged, on the 4th August." 



Ao-ain on the 22nd August he writes : " The Cuckoo left the nest 

 on 4th instant and I sent the notes to Bombay on the 6th, up to which 

 time I had not seen it since leaving the nest. I, however, saw it on 

 several occasions after that with the two foster-parents in attendance 

 and feeding it. 



"The last day on which I saw them together was the 14th instant, and 

 I am quite satisfied it was a Caccomantis. . Mr. Stubbs, one of the 

 accountants at the Bank, saw it on the 15th. I found another nest of 

 Prinia socialis with a similar egg, but unfortunately the nest was robbed, 

 probably by a lizard." 



Four eggs were sent me by Professor Burnett, out of which one 

 is that of Prinia socialis — abnormal certainly, but identifiable by its 

 texture, which is quite different to that of any Cuckoos. 



The three bond fide Cuckoo's eggs are of three types. 



One is a very dull, muddy-coloured egg of the type described in 

 detail in my former notes as having been received from the Irvine 

 collection. The ground is a very pale greeny-grey stone colour suffused 

 with reddish at either end and profusely speckled with minute dots of 

 reddish, which tend to form a ring at the larger end. This egg gives 



