Canon Tristram's Facts. 211 



eggs on the ground, and then carry them in their 

 beaks to the nest they have selected, in exactly the 

 same manner as the common cuckoo does. 



XXXI. 



THE PALESTINEAN EVIDENCE. 



Canon Tristram, in his most valuable book, Tht 

 Birds of Palestine, writes as follows about the cuckoos 

 there : 



"The cuckoo (canoriis) returns to Palestine at the 

 end of March or beginning of April, when it is par- 

 ticularly obnoxious to the bush babbler [Crateropus 

 chalyheus), which clamorously pursues it in the Jordan 

 Valley. It is spread generally over the whole 

 country. In Algeria the cuckoos {Coccystes glan- 

 darius) deposit their eggs in the nest of the Mauri- 

 tanian magpie, the eggs of which they very closely 

 resemble. In the Holy Land I have found them 

 only in the nest of the hooded crow (Corvus comix), 

 and that very frequently. No doubt they will also 

 be found in the nest of the Syrian jay, which is com- 

 mon in districts like Carmel, where there are no 

 crows, and where the spotted cuckoo abounds." 



In a letter with which Canon Tristram has kindly 

 favoured me, in reply to my queries about the date of 

 cuckoos' leaving the Holy Land, he writes : 



" I cannot state the exact date of departure of the 

 cuckoo from the Holy Land, because September is 

 the only month which I have not spent in natural 

 history work in the country. I have noticed the 



