Mr. y. H. Gurney. 43 



throw some light of explanation on the conduct of the 

 great spotted cuckoos of Spain, which we shall by-and- 

 by tell by quotation from Lord Lilford, often lay their 

 eggs, numbering from three to eight, in the nests of 

 the pies. 



E. T. Gunn, in Zoologist, 1865 (p. 9628), tells of a 

 case of two young cuckoos in one nest which lived till 

 they were a considerable size, when one of them died. 



Mr. J. H. Gurney thus closes a most interesting 

 short paper in the Zoologist, for December, 1897 • 



" We have had two nests this year with two 

 cuckoos in each, one belonging to a pied wagtail, and 

 the other to a spotted flycatcher ; but from what I 

 can learn one cuckoo only was reared in each nest." 



" I think," says Mr. Norgate, " we should more 

 often find two or more cuckoos' eggs in one nest, but 

 that I fancy the second and succeeding cuckoo would 

 be likely to take out the biggest egg {i.e., the previous 

 cuckoo's), rather than a smaller egg of foster-parent. 

 ... I have found cuckoo's eggs uninjured outside the 

 nest, and on other occasions the foster-parents' out- 

 side the nest sometimes uninjured. I have more than 

 once found the cuckoo's egg uninjured in a nest with 

 the foster-parent's eggs all broken, but in such cases 

 usually found very many feathers of foster-parent and 

 sometimes the dead foster-parent outside the nest : 

 one often sees a scuffle between cuckoos and small 

 birds." 



Mr. J. H. Gurney writes: 



" Two young cuckoos in one nest is a thing very 

 rarely witnessed, and it has only happened in this 

 county (Norfolk) about three times : on Mousehold 

 Heath (as noted above), at Cringleford, and at Bracon- 



