Col. Butler's Early Egg. 125 



in the second week in May, had then two eggs re- 

 maining in the ovaries, nearly ready to lay. Verner 

 found, on the 25th June, 1879, near Gibraltar, a 

 cuckoo's egg in a wood-warbler's nest." * 



Colonel Butler wrote to the Zoologist from Brat- 

 tingham Park, Suffolk, the following, which appears 

 in that magazine in 1895, P- 229 : 



" On May 25, I found, on the ivy over a potting- 

 shed in my garden here, a robin's nest containing a 

 young cuckoo about a week old, so that the egg from 

 which it was hatched must have been laid quite at 

 the beginning of May ; and I also heard of another 

 bird in the neighbourhood rather older, so that the 

 egg in that instance must have been laid earlier still. 

 The young bird in my garden was discovered by my 

 noticing four young robins — only just hatched : in 

 fact, one was still in the broken shell — lying on the 

 ground below the nest. On looking into the nest 

 to ascertain the cause, I found a young cuckoo in 

 possession ; he must have turned his companions out, 

 therefore, almost as soon as he was hatched." 



XV. 



Now, how does this bear on the question before 

 us ? If the cuckoo begins to lay in the very early 

 part of May, which there are the very best reasons 

 for believing she does (for I have found eggs then), 

 and goes on laying, she must at the least lay eggs till 

 the 25th of June, as the Gibraltar cuckoos do, and 

 even later, as some instances testify that our cuckoos 



* Ornithology of Straits nf Gibraltar, p. 135. 



