Birds. 8681 



could in its original position ; whereupon the little wren again took possession, and 

 proceeded to incubate the remaining eggs. This continued for four or five flays, when 

 again, unhappily, the nest was by some means displaced, and both it and its contents 

 hopelessly destroyed. — /. C. Atkinson; Dauby-in-Cleveland. 



Does the Cuckoo portially Incubate P — Has the cuckoo the power of partially incu- 

 bating its own egiis before depositing them in the nests of other birds? The above 

 query is promulgated from the following fact. On the 2nd of June I found a hedge- 

 sparrow's nest with two eggs. Happening to pass that way the next day I again looked 

 into the nest, and found that it contained four eggs, viz., one cuckoo's and three 

 hedgesparrow's. Upon blowing tbe eggs I was surprised to find the cuckoo's partly 

 incubated; so much so that the eyes of the embryo were fully developed, while the 

 eggs of the hedgesparrow were quite fresh. I am perfectly satisfied that the cuckoo's 

 egg had been deposited in the nest within twenty-four hours of my blowing it. How, 

 then, T ask, comes it partly incubated ? — Henry Reeks ; Thruxton, June 9, 1863. 



[This fact, from such an observer as Mr. Reeks, is extremely valuable: it leads 

 me, however, to offer a different hypothesis from that which my correspondent suggests. 

 In the first place I imagine the cuckoo's egg to have been originally laid in some other 

 nest, there partially incubated by the legitimate owner of that nest, and then removed 

 by the parent cuckoo herself to the nest in which it was subsequently found. We 

 possess reliable evidence, in the first place, that the female cuckoo maintains a kind of 

 surveillance over her egg, and even over her young; and, in the second place, that 

 she can convey her egs; into a locality where it is impossible to introduce her entire 

 body. Records, moreover, are not wanting of cuckoos having been shot with an egg 

 actually in their mouth, so that the transfer of the egg from one nest to another after 

 partial incubation seems not merely possible, but probable. — Edward Newman]. 



Eggs of the Cuckoo : Nests of Water Rail, Hawfinch and Tree Creeper. — On the 

 8th of June I had the nest of the wood Wdvb\ev h {Sylvia sylvicola) brought me. It 

 contained four eggs of the wood warbler and one of ihe cuckoo. I never knew the 

 cuckoo to choose this nest before. I have the eggs now in my cabinet. I have in two 

 instances taken the egg of the cuckoo from the reed warbler's nest, once in 1847, and 

 the other this present season. In both instances the nests were slung between three 

 reeds, in a patch by the Thames side. I this year found the nest of the water rail 

 with eggs; it was built amongst sedge, and composed of the dead leaves of the 

 sedge ; I thought it not so coarse a structure as that of the moorhen. I have also had 

 three nests of the hawfinch this season with eggs ; they are not so much a vara avis 

 with us as with some. I rather like the nest, the stag's horn moss gives it a good 

 appearance, quite different from any other that I am acquainted with. I get the 

 eggs every season. I also had a very pretty nest of the tree creeper brought. Ii was 

 built helweeu the stem of an elm and a piece of loose bark, and very closely resembled 

 the pretty vignette in Yarrell's ■ British Birds,' vol. ii. It was composed externally of 

 pieces of touch-wood, dried twigs, a few straws and a few roots, lined with feathers, 

 chiefly those metallic glossy ones of the starling. It contained four eggs. — C. Stubbs. 



Irregular Appearance of the Sivallow. — I have been very much struck wilh the 

 irregular appearance of the swallows this year. On the lOih of April four swallows were 

 seen at Alne Cross ; on the 18th two more at Youlton, a mile and a half from Alne ; 

 on the 21st five more were seen at Linton-on-Ouse; and on the 27th a flock was seen 

 at Kirby Hall. Between these dates none were seen in the localities mentioned. The 

 village has long been noted for the number of swallows breeding in it ; yet it was the 

 VOL. XXI. 3 B 



