316 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



with a similar number of Dunlin. All these records are from 

 Newnham. The majority of these notes are personal observations 

 and from intermittent visits to that county ; they must not be taken 

 for careful and continued records. The results of such would be 

 invaluable, especially from Newnham, for any future reference to 

 migration in relation to Bedfordshire. — J. Steele Elliott. 



Behaviour of two Young Cuckoos iu one Nest. — On May 24:th last 

 I found the nest of a Meadow-Pipit on Baildon Moor, with three 

 eggs and one Cuckoo's egg ; near the same place last year a naturalist 

 friend of mine found a similar nest containing one Cuckoo's egg, and 

 on May 30th I found another Titlark's nest containing four eggs, one 

 of which was a Cuckoo's. This was built in a pasture adjoining the 

 moor, and separated by a distance of perhaps a quarter of a mile. 

 The Cuckoos' eggs were evidently laid by different females, as the 

 eggs were quite different in size, shape, and, in a lesser degree, 

 coloration. On June 2nd a naturalist friend of mine from Bourne- 

 mouth visited both the above nests in the morning, and in each nest 

 the Cuckoo's egg had hatched, but the three eggs in each Pipit's nest 

 were still unhatched. After inspecting the nests my friend and I had 

 a long walk, and on returning in the afternoon, I found that one of 

 the eggs in the nest on the moor had hatched, but the other eggs in 

 the nest in the pasture were still unhatched. It was quite evident 

 that the Cuckoos in the above nests were hatched within at most an 

 hour or two of each other, and could not have been many hours old 

 when we visited the nests on June 2nd. My friend and I again 

 visited the nests on June 3rd, at about 9.30 a.m., and found that the 

 nest on the moor contained one young Pipit and Cuckoo, and one 

 egg of Pipit was thrown out and was on the rim of the nest, so 

 another egg had been thrown out, or a young Pipit ; but I could find 

 no trace of either near the nest. Probably the young Pipit which 

 was hatched on June 2nd had been thrown out by the Cuckoo. The 

 nest in the pasture contained the young Cuckoo and two eggs of the 

 Pipit, and another egg was lying on the rim of the nest, having 

 evidently been thrown out by the Cuckoo. We had not long to wait 

 before the Cuckoo began to be very restless, and in a short time it 

 heaved the egg of the Pipit to the top of the nest by pushing the 

 egg up the side of it, not balancing the egg in the hollow of its back 

 as it sometimes does, soon after which operation it hoisted a young 

 Pipit out of the nest. Afterwards my friend and I decided to place 

 all the unhatched eggs in the nest on the ruoor, and place the two 

 young Cuckoos in the nest built in the pasture ; by this arrangement 



1 



