APPENDIX. 443 



it as a cuckoo's ; it has since, together with the cuckoo's skin, been 

 presented to the Dublin Natural History Society. From the position 

 of the bird as held by me, it is impossible that the egg could have 

 come from any place but the bird's throat, as, if it had been passed in 

 the ordinary way, it must have fallen on ray arm, and thence to the 

 ground on a different spot from that whence I picked it up. On 

 dissection by Professor AUman, the bird proved to be a young female, 

 and had in her ovary two full-grown eggs, one of them ready to pass 

 into the oviduct. In her stomach were the remains of insects and a 

 small portion of vegetable matter, but not even with a powerful 

 microscope could any remains of eggs be detected, clearly showing 

 that the bird was not feeding on eggs ; — it was three o'clock, p.m., 

 when she was shot. Do not these facts prove that M. Le Vaillant's 

 observations respecting the African cuckoos (C. a/urdus und C. Iwpatlciis) 

 are also applicable to C. canorus (common cuckoo), viz., that she carries 

 her egg in her throat, for the puqiose of deposition in nests to Avhich 

 she could not gain access in the ordinaiy way ? and may it not be this 

 habit which has gained the cuckoo a name she does not appear to 

 deserve, that of egg-sucker ? May not persons have shot her with tha 

 egg in her throat, and naturally imagined that the egg was that of 

 another bird, especially as to a superficial observer the eggs of C. ca- 

 norus and Fyrgitta domestica (house sparrow) appear identical, though 

 easily enough distinguished when examined closely ? In fact, a friend 

 of Mr. Haughton's says he has frequently shot cuckoos with eggs 

 entire in their throats, and that he does not doubt but that they were 

 the bird's own," 



A note to the same effect as the preceding was contributed to Mac- 

 gillivray's ' British Birds ' (vol. iii. p. 130), by Mr. D. Weir, but was 

 not given on his own authority. 



Order KASOKES. 



Passenger Pigeon, vol. ii. p. 18. 



Individuals which were obtained in Scotland are there noticed. To 

 use the words of Mr. R. D. Fitzgerald, jun., writing from Tralee, in 

 July 1850; — "I had in my possession, about two years ago, a pas- 

 senger pigeon, which was caught near this town, Avhen imable to fly 



