230 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



worth recordiug. I have, as a rule, commenced to search for the eggs of 

 this species about May 20th, continuing up to about June 10th, and most 

 of the eggs I possess — about eighteen or twenty in all — were taken during 

 the first week in June. To my surprise, however, this year I received a 

 letter from a reliable correspondent residing in Surrey, dated May 14th, 

 saying that he had already taken seventeen Cuckoos' eggs in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Byfleet, the first having been found on April 30th. On May 

 25th I found in 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 young bird in this 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, and 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. 

 From the actions of the birds, I have no doubt that they are still laying as 

 usual, and I am inclined to think that the early eggs were the result of the 

 exceptionally warm weather we experienced this year at the beginning of 

 May.— E. A. Butler, Lt-Col. (Brettenham Park, Suffolk). 



Curious fate of a Cuckoo. — I was recently shown the remains of a 

 Cuckoo preserved in such a way as to show the manner in which it met 

 with its death. It is a hen bird, and seems to have been pushing its way 

 into a bush in search of a small bird's nest. It must have used some 

 degree of force, and had thrust its head into the fork of a fairly stout branch, 

 when a more slender twig which had " given" a little, springing back into 

 place, " clenched" the head behind, so that the bird could not withdraw it. 

 When found the bird was dead, and had been hanging for some days. — 

 J. H. Salter (University College, Aberystwyth). 



Palseornis rosea breeding in Confinement. — Late in the summer of 

 1893 I purchased two pairs of the Burmese Blossom-headed Parrakeet, 

 PalcBomis rosea, in nestling plumage. They were newly imported, rough 

 in feathering, and their wings had been clipped ; consequently I obtained 

 them at a very reasonable figure. In this early stage the young birds 

 are much alike, but the hens are somewhat stouter in build, and their 

 plumage is rather duller than that of the cocks ; both sexes, however, unlike 

 P. cyanocephalus, have the purplish brown patch on the wing-coverts. 

 Towards spring both males came into colour, but both sexes of one pair 

 which I kept in a heated aviary failed to reproduce the primaries which had 

 been cut off, and died soon after their moult: I then discovered that the 

 bone had been injured by the knife of the native, who had maimed them. 



