ADDITIONAL CUCKOO NOTES. 889 



me the impression that it is a form intermediate between the common 

 types already described and the terra-cotta eggs which form the 

 normal type in the Deccan. The second egg has a beautiful pink 

 ground thickly covered with terra-cotta and reddish speckles and blotches 

 which coalesce in a thick ring at the larger extremity. This egg nearly 

 approaches the normal Deccan egg, of which my third is a representative. 

 This is a beautiful terra-cotta with a darker ring of the same as in the 

 other eggs. 



The three eggs measured, respectively, '72" X "52," "74" X "53" and 

 •71" X "51"; in texture, shape, &c, they agree with the eggs already 

 described. 



From Belgaum Mr. T. R. Bell has been so good as to send me yet 

 another series of three eggs, all laid in the nest of Cisticola cur sit cms. 

 Two of these have a white ground and one a blue ground, and agree 

 well with the eggs already described. They measure "72" X *51," 

 •72" X "52" and -69" X '51". 



Professor Burnett's suggestions open up three most interesting points 

 in connection with the eggs of parasitic Cuckoos. 



First is the question whether the colouration of the egg has any rela- 

 tion to the colour of the egg of the foster-parent selected. 



To commence with, we have the broad fact that our Cuckoos which lay 

 blue eggs — that is, Hierococcyx varius and the genus Coccystes— practi- 

 cally invariably deposit their eggs in the nests of such birds as them- 

 selves lay blue eggs. All over India fosterers of this description are 

 available in considerable numbers and there is no need for further 

 adaptation, and accordingly we find there is none, and no one has ever 

 taken an egg of the above Cuckoos of any other colour but blue ; of 

 course there are rare exceptions to the usual fosterers selected, such as 

 the egg of Coccystes jacobmus found in the nest of Garrulax leucolophus. 

 but these exceptions are too few to have any influence either on eggs or 

 parent. 



As regards the Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canons), it is difficult to 

 say definitely that adaptation is going on, for we find every type of egg- 

 laid almost indiscriminately in the various fosterers generally accorded 

 the honour of bringing up the young bird. 



Here in the Khasia Hills the fosterer most often selected is the little 

 Fantail Warbler {Cisticola cursitans) and certainly the most common 

 type of egg is like a gigantic edition of the Warbler's egg. On the 



