6 AZURE -WINGED MAGPIE. 



So far as I am aware, tlie Great Spotted Cuckoo never selects tlie nest 

 of tliis bird for her egg." 



In an interesting series of j^^-pei's whicli lie is publishing on the 

 Nests and Eggs of the South of France, in the '^ Revue de Zoologie," 

 M. Moquin-Tandon has one upon the nidification of the Common 

 Magpie, (March, 1858, p. 98,) which will bear one or two extracts 

 here, notwithstanding the subject is so familiar to every bird-nesting 

 youngster in this country. 



"The nests are of three principal forms. First, horizontal cup-like 

 nest, not domed. Second, the same shape, but with one side raised. 

 Third, an irregular spherical nest, with a dome more or less thick, 

 and a lateral opening. Of fourteen nests, nine had the first form, three 

 the second, and two the third. All the nests were upon large trees 

 — poplar, oak, beech, chesnut, and walnut. Those with a raised side 

 were fixed in forked branches, and on the side which had most support, 

 the screen or covering was placed. One nest only, which was in the 

 broken branch of an Italian poplar, had this covering without any 

 support, but it was not so high as usual. The screen had always a 

 reference to the prevailing wind. The two nests protected by a dome 

 differed from each other; in one the covering was almost transparent, 

 whilst in the other it was thick so as to keep out rain. One of these 

 last had a transverse diameter of twenty-two centimetres, (eight inches 

 and four fifths,) and the opening seven centimetres high. 



These nests were formed outside of little sticks and thorny branches. 

 In the framework of the largest was the branch of a plum tree as 

 thick as one's finger, and forty centimetres (sixteen inches) long. In 

 four nests the materials were united by clay mortar. All were lined 

 with flexible roots, stalks of grasses, wool, and feathers." 



Of one hundred and eighty-seven eggs examined by M. Moquin- 

 Tandon, one hundred and eleven had the ordinary size, (thirty to 

 thirty-two millemetres by twenty to twenty-five;) sixty-six were a fifth 

 or sixth less; one only a third less; one without yolk; five increased 

 in length both ends alike; four obtuse and much shorter. These one 

 hundred and eighty-seven eggs differed in colour as follows: — One 

 hundred and thirty-five were of the natural colour, that is, dirty white, 

 more or less clear, with spots of olive brown and dark green, partic- 

 ularly at the greatest end. Twenty-seven had few spots, and a well 

 marked circlet at the greatest end. Four with a circlet well-marked 

 at the smaller end, of which one had the rest covered with spots. 

 Eleven were finely dotted, principally at the larger end. Four had 

 three or four dots slightly marked about the large end. Three were 



