Vol. xlii.] 96 



depositing one egg in the same Reed-Warbler's nest and a 

 later one in a Pipit's. In all these instances the true 

 fosterers were Reed-Warblers, and the eggs were un- 

 doubtedly laid in other birds' nests because there were no 

 nests of the former available. 



This habit is emphasized if one refers to some of my series 

 of Indian Cuckoos. For instance, the most common 

 fosterers in Eastern India for Ciiculus canorus bakeri are the 

 little Warblers Cisticola cursitans, the Brown Hill-Warblers 

 of the genus Su^a, and the Pipits Anthus ritfulus and 

 Anihus striolatus. The former two genera are extraordinarily 

 common, and many nests are built within a small area. In 

 Box No. 18 are shown series of Cuckoo eggs taken with these 

 foster-parents, and in the first series of 14 eggs, all taken 

 within a very small radius of my garden in Shillong, only 

 two eggs were found in other fosterers' nests, these being the 

 10th in the nest of Cisticola tytleri, possibly mistaken by the 

 Cuckoo for that of C. c. cursitans^ and the last in the nest of 

 Svya crinigera, possibly because the nests of Cisticola were 

 exhausted in that special area. Here undoubtedly we have 

 the Cuckoo placing her eggs in another foster-parent's nest 

 rather than trouble to search for her own special fosterer, 

 though numerous nests of these were close at hand. 



The series laid in the nests of Suya are small, but it is 

 interesting to note that in all these series the nests of Siu/a 

 crinigera and Sut/u khasiana are made use of quite indis- 

 criminately. 



When we come to the Pipits (Box No. 17), the Cuckoos 

 seem to adopt quite difiPerent tactics. Both the Pipits, more 

 especially A. striolatus, breed in rather restricted patches and 

 in small numbers on ridges and crests of hills, so apparently 

 the Cuckoos exhaust the few nests there are in one place and 

 then go elsewhere in search of new ground. 



The two blotched red eggs shown in the same box laid by 

 another bird are interesting, as one of the fosterers is a 

 Babbler, Pellornemn mandellii, and the other is a Pipit. 

 The first nest was built in scrub and bracken on the ground 

 at the edge of forest. The second was about twenty yards 



