142 Darwin and Romanes dealt with. 



of cuckoos' eggs are missed simply because they ar 

 so well matched — missed and never recognised even 

 when seen as being cuckoos' eggs ? It almost tempts 

 one here to be guilty of a small joke, and to say that 

 the cuckoo has not only managed to dupe, gowk 

 (Scottice), or take-in small birds, many of them, but 

 some even of the great ornithologists and men of 

 science also, thus oddly reversing natural positions. 

 And certainly I for one cannot accept Dr. Rey's notion 

 of excess of unmatched eggs here over matched ones. 

 Then, if the deposition of a cuckoo's or parasitic 

 egg is, according to Mr. Romanes, " comparatively 

 an exceedingly rare event," how account for the vast 

 collections of cuckoos' eggs that have been made, 

 and that are being made, every year in almost every 

 district of the United Kingdom ? When Mr. Bidwell 

 had his exhibition some years ago, which he organised 

 so well and successfully, he showed something like 

 909 cuckoos' eggs. There are well - known vast, 

 private collections of cuckoos' eggs in various parts 

 of the country (not to speak of those on the Conti- 

 nent, including that of Herr Pralle at Hildesheim), 

 the most extensive and complete being those of Col. 

 Butler,* Mr. Massey, Mr. Norton, and Lord Roths- 

 child, besides those in the public collections or mu- 

 seums, which are constantly being added to and im- 

 proved, and also sections of the more general collec- 

 tions of well-known ornithologists, such as those of 

 the late Lord Lilford, the late Henry Seebohm, and 

 the late John Hancock, and unnumbered smaller 

 endless private collections, which are constantly being 



* Most of the eggs in Colonel Butler's collection were taken 

 during the first week in June. 



