28



REVIEWS.


The Royal Natural History.—Parts 19, 20, and 21. Edited by


Richard Lydekker, F.R.S. (Frederick Warne & Co.)


It is eminently desirable that aviculturists should acquire

at least an elementary knowledge of the structure of birds, their

habits when free, and the principles which underlie the system of

classification adopted by ornithologists. The study of these sub¬

jects has an important bearing on aviculture, and we therefore

make no apology for occasionally occupying the pages of the

Avicultural Magazine with reviews of books which treat of the

natural history of birds, and not of their management in

captivity.


Chapter VIII of the “ Rojml Natural History” describes

the Cuckoos and their near relations the Plantain-eaters or

Touracos. Some of the Cuckoos are parasitic, while others

build nests. Thus the great Spotted Cuckoo lays in the nests

of Crows and Magpies, while the Indian Pied Cuckoo lays in the

nests of Babbling Thrushes. Of the common Cuckoo, Dr.

Bowdler Sharpe writes :


“The variability in the colour of the eggs is well known, and it

appears that in each individual the colour of the eggs is hereditary. That

is to say, that Cuckoos brought up by Meadow Pipits always select that bird

to be the foster-parent of their own young in course of time, the same

being the case with regard to Hedge Sparrows, Wagtails, and other ordinary

victims of the Cuckoo. The small size of the egg and the extraordinary

similarity which it often shows to the egg of the foster-parent render it

difficult to distinguish the Cuckoo’s egg from those of the rightful owner

of the nest; and sometimes a Cuckoo will lay a blue egg exactly like that

of the Redstart or Pied Flycatcher, the nest of which it is about to utilize.

I11 the case of eggs laid by the Cuckoo in Wagtails’ nests and those of other

birds, the resemblance is exadt, and when a Cuckoo’s egg is found in a nest

where the eggs of the foster-parent are different, it is probable that the

Cuckoo has not been able to find a nest at the moment in which the eggs

belonged to its own hereditary type. The nest of a Sedge-warbler has

indeed been found with a Cuckoo’s egg in it, which was the exact counter¬

part of those of the foster-parent; and a few daj-s after, the finder having

noticed the female Cuckoo to be hovering about the neighbourhood all the

time, found a Cuckoo’s egg of the same Sedge-Warbler type in a Reed-

Bunting’s nest where, of course, it looked thoroughly out of place. From

these facts it would appear that a Cuckoo, laying a “Sedge-Warbler” egg,

had been unable to find a second Sedge-Warbler and had been constrained

to put it into a Reed-Bunting’s nest.”


Chapter IX deals with the Trogons, which, we believe,

have never been successfully kept in Europe; the Colies or

Mouse-birds, which are sometimes to be obtained by avicultur¬

ists ; the Humming-birds, the Swifts, the Nightjars, Todies,

Motmots, and Bee - eaters. The Hoopoe has been kept in



