1842.] Malayan species of Cuculidce. 1107 



great, as no two of them were of the same size, which clearly shewed 

 that they had been hatched at different periods, and I should have 

 supposed the largest to have been fully three weeks older than any 

 of the rest. Mr. Rhett assured us, that he had observed the same in 

 another nest placed in a tree within a few paces of his house, and 

 which he also shewed to us. He stated that eleven young Cuckoos 

 had been successively hatched and reared in it, by the same pair 

 of old birds, in one season, and that young birds and eggs were to be 

 seen in it at the same time for many weeks in succession. 



" On thinking since of this strange fact, I have felt most anxious 

 to discover how many eggs the Cuckoo of Europe drops in one season. 

 If it, as I suspect, produces, like the American bird, not less than 

 eight or ten, or what may be called the amount of two broods in a 

 season*, this circumstance would connect the two species in a still 

 more intimate manner than theoretical writers have supposed them to 

 be allied. Having mentioned these circumstances to my friend, Dr. 

 T. M. Brewer, and requested him to pay particular attention to these 

 birds while breeding, he has sent me the following note : — ' The fact 

 you intimated to me last July I have myself observed. The female 

 evidently commences incubation immediately after laying her first 

 egg. Thus I have found in the nests of both species of our Cuckoos 

 one egg quite fresh, while in another the chick will be just bursting 

 the shell ; and again, I have found an egg just about to be hatched 

 while others are already so, and some of the young even able to fly.' " 

 It is well known that domestic pigeons will not unfrequently lay 

 again, before their previous pair of young are fit to leave the nest, in 

 which case, I believe, they generally oust the latter as soon as they 

 can, though continuing to feed them : but a more analogous fact to 

 that presented by the North American Cuckoos was announced by myself 

 in 1833, as cited by Mr. Yarrell, respecting the propagation of the 

 common Barn Owl (Strix flammea), — a bird common here, as 

 well as in England and North America, where Mr. Audubon has 



* A pair of Blackbirds on the large islet of St. James's Park, London, being the 

 only ones at the place, and the hen so remarkably tame, that there could be no doubt 

 of her identity throughout the season, reared and brought off four broods of young 

 in one year, the three first consisting of five each, and the last of two only, seventeen 

 in all ; as many as in a Partridge's single brood, the latter only laying a second 

 time when some accident had happened to the first brood.— E. B. 



7 E 



