Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, ^c. 361 



This fact, taken in connexion with my observations of 1864 (re- 

 corded at page 186), gives from May 1st — instead of May 5th — 

 to July 19th as the period during which Cuculus canorus lays 

 its eggs. 



I now always instruct my collectors to search in the grass or 

 weeds under the nest for the eggs turned out by the Cuckoo, 

 and in two instances I myself have found them uninjured. 

 From this cii'cumstance I am inclined to believe that the Cuckoo 

 does not suck eggs. At all events it is clear that she does not 

 make use of them as food. I have never, it is true, seen her in 

 the act of turning out any; but I cannot believe that the parent- 

 bird is the agent in this process, and am quite convinced that 

 the Cuckoo is. I remain, &c., 



Geo. Dawson Rowley. 



From information contained in a letter from Dr. Giglioli, 

 kindly communicated to us by Dr. Sclater, we understand that 

 Dr. Salvadori, whose name is well known to the readers of 

 *The Ibis,' has now in preparation a general work upon the 

 Italian avifauna, which we are Bure will prove an acceptable 

 addition to our knowledge of the birds of Italy ; for we are not 

 aware that any book on the ornithology of that peninsula as a 

 whole has appeared since the completion, now more than twenty 

 years since, of Prince Charles Lucien's costly, and therefore rare, 

 ' Iconografia della Fauna Italica.' From the same source we 

 learn that the same gentleman, who has lately been putting in 

 order the ornithological collection of the University of Turin, 

 has found, among other interesting specimens in it, one of Hypsi- 

 petes niveiceps, described by Mr. Swinhoe in ' The Ibis' for last 

 year (p. 424) . We also hear that Professor De Filippi, the ener- 

 getic director of the same museum, has lately acquired two 

 splendid examples of another of Mr. Swinhoe's discoveries — 

 Crossoptilum mantchuricum, which were sent over by a mission- 

 ary from the neighbourhood of Pekin. 



Pastor Theobald writes to us from Copenhagen that he and 

 his friends have again this year succeeded in obtaining eggs of 

 Nucifraga caryocatactes from the island of Bornholm. Two 



N. S. — VOL. I. 2 c 



