attention was first attracted by a shrill chatter, quite unlike the note of any bird with which I 

 was acquainted ; and on approaching the spot whence it proceeded, I descried four long-tailed 

 birds hopping about an open space some sixty yards from me, and occasionally flying up into the 

 surrounding trees. As far as I could make out they were engaged in catching and devouring 

 grasshoppers, now and then diversifying this pursuit by a little love-making and a great deal of 

 altercation. Their actions on the ground are very awkward and grotesque; but the flight is 

 rather swift and well sustained, somewhat resembling that of the common Cuckoo. They were 

 rather shy, and, on my showing myself, at once flew into the high trees, where I heard them for 

 long pluming one another, and keeping up an almost incessant chatter." Mr. S. Stafford Allen, 

 who met with it in Egypt, writes that " these birds generally occurred in pairs, frequenting the 

 groves of Gum Acacia frees (Acacia nilotica), the ' Sont ' of the Arabs, which line the banks of 

 the Nile, both in Upper and Lower Egypt, where their presence was usually made apparent by 

 the chattering, which I believe proceeds from the female. I was informed that the male has a 

 note similar to that of the male of C. canorus; but this I never heard. When disturbed, they 

 flew with a steady, dipping flight, the long tail being very conspicuous, alighting a little further 

 on, and, if pursued, would slip quietly out of the opposite side of the tree to a fresh shelter. 

 There is no perceptible difference between the sexes, either in plumage or in size ; but the young 

 bird just fledged is much darker in colour than the adult, becoming lighter with age." 



Strictly parasitical in its breeding-habits, the Great Spotted Cuckoo in Spain usually selects 

 the common Magpie (Pica rustica) as a foster-parent for its progeny, though sometimes the eggs 

 are deposited in the nests of the Azure-winged Magpie ; but in North-east Africa it invariably 

 places its eggs in the nests of the Hooded Crow (Corvus comix). In Portugal nests of the Azure- 

 winged Magpie have been found with eggs of that species and one of C. glandarius ; and I was 

 assured when in Spain that this Cuckoo occasionally deposits its eggs in the nest of that species. 

 This is also confirmed by Lord Lilford, who writes as follows : — " I merely mention for what it 

 may be worth that I was assured by one of the keepers of the Coto de Dofiana, an intelligent 

 man, certainly well acquainted with both species, and who had no interest in lying on the 

 subject, that in the neighbourhood of his native village Almonte the present species constantly 

 lays its eggs in the nest of Cyanopica coohii — a statement which I unfortunately had no time to 

 verify." Canon Tristram, Mr. J. H. Cochrane, and the late Mr. S. Stafford Allen have published 

 many interesting details respecting the breeding-habits of the present species, all tending to show 

 its parasitic habit, and also that, unlike C. canorus, the present species deposits more than one 

 egg in the same nest. In many of the nests of C. comix found by the two latter gentlemen 

 containing eggs of C. glandarius, two eggs of the Cuckoo were found ; whereas others contained 

 only one. I was, however, assured by Manuel de la Torre, the royal keeper at Madrid, that he 

 knew of instances where as many as four eggs of the Cuckoo had been found in one Magpie's 

 nest. Mr. Stafford Allen remarks that where he has found the nests containing the young of 

 the Hooded Crow together with the young of the Cuckoo, the latter were much more forward 

 than the Crow's, and appears to think that the eggs of the Cuckoo require less incubation than 

 those of the Crow, as in nests which contained eggs, the Cuckoo's eggs appeared to be fresher 

 than those of the Crow. He also remarks that the Cuckoo never selects the nest of a Crow 

 which is placed in an isolated tree. 



