exhibit now adorns the Pitman collection; but the Major is not content with 

 small fry, however beautiful, for he has an eye on several old nests of the Augur 

 Buzzard {Buteo augur) and the intrepid Bateleur Eagle {Helotarsus ecaudatus). 



R. E. Symons, Esq., Shafton House, P. O. Shafton Grange, Howick, Natal, 

 South Africa. Under date of December 21, 1921, Mr. Symons writes: "We are in 

 the middle of our collecting season now, and I have purposely put off sending 

 anything until I should have a better variety to select from. In the next consign- 

 ment I propose putting in two sets of Therlsticus hagedash and six sets of Spreo 

 blcolor; and I hope also to be able to let you have a set of Centropus burchelli, and 

 any other cuckoos I may have. 



"It may interest you to hear that I have this season taken two sets of 

 Centropus burchelli. This bird is, of course, not of parasitic habits, but builds 

 instead quite a useful dome-shaped nest of grass, generally in a thick shrub or in 

 the coarse grass lining the bends of a river or stream. I may be able to get you a 

 nest xx. In this district we have also Cuculus solilarius, Chrysococcyx cupreus, 

 and Metalococcyx smaragdineus; also Cuculus gular is, the latter being rare. I have 

 on two occasions taken a pure white egg from nests of Spreo btcolor, and am in- 

 clined to think that they were laid by Cuculus gular ls. 



"One of my best finds this season is a set oiBycan'tstes buccinator (Trumpe- 

 ter Hornbill). This bird, as you no doubt know, nests in a hole in a tree, and when 

 the breeding season approaches, the female is enclosed in the nest; the male closes 

 up the entrance until only a small aperture remains, through which he feeds his 

 unfortunate mate, and there she remains until the eggs are laid and hatched. I 

 took my eggs in October, and had some difficulty in breaking away the plaster 

 at the entrance, and after taking the eggs I left the female in the nest. A few 

 weeks later I paid another visit to the place and found that the female had again 

 been closed in and had deposited another set of eggs, which I had not the heart 

 to deprive her of. 



"Another valuable find was a nest of Bugeranus carunculalus ( Wattled 

 Crane) with one egg, incubation just starting. This is another of our most inter- 

 esting birds, and I am very pleased to say they often nest on my farm, although 

 I am not always successful in locating the nest. They build their nest in the mid- 

 dle of a swamp, or "pan," and they pile up a heap of grass roots and tufts until 

 an island is formed, in about a foot of water, all the grass growing in the swamp 

 in the vicinity of the nest being pulled up and deposited upon it." 



B. A.Fernandes,Esq., 2, New Cantwadi, Bandra, Bombay. In sending us 

 a handsome offering of cuckoos' eggs, with their fpstercrs, Mr. Fernandes makes 

 the following comment on an egg of the Pied-crested Cuckoo, Coccystes jacobinus: 

 "This egg was found in the nest of the Red-whiskered Bulbul, Otocompsa etneria. 

 Although I have taken many examples of this parasite in the past, they were 

 invariably found in the nest of one of the Babblers (as, for example, Crateropus 

 canorus or C. striatus — Ed.) This is the first time I have taken it in the Bulbul's 

 nest. I notice that neither Hume nor Mr. Stuart Baker mentions the Bulbul as 

 among the victims of this Cuckoo. There is absolutely no doubt as to the iden- 

 tity of the egg, as the clutch was personally taken ; and, moreover, I had ample 

 opportunity to observe both birds." 



The eggs in question, two of the Bulbul and one of the Cuckoo, repose in 

 an elegant nest of the former species; and a contrast could hardly be more em- 

 phatic than that between the pure Niagara green of the Cuckoo's eggs and the 

 white with dashing red spots and blotches of the Bulbul's eggs. This was doubt- 

 less a case of "any port in a storm," as Mr. Edgar P. Chance has so clearly pointed 

 out in connection with his studies of Cuculus canorus. Some accident having 

 befallen the Babbler's nest which the Pied-crested intended to lay in, and whose 

 egg her own exactly resembles, she was ready to drop it anywhere, on the slender- 

 est hope of its passing unchallenged. 



Rev. Harry R. Caldwell, lately of Yenping City, Fuhkien, China. It is 

 with mingled pleasure and regret that we note the return of this able and energetic 



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