NOTES AND QUERIES. 391 



ground, often in a little recess or cavity, but sometimes it is raised 

 above the ground in heath or low furze. Twite's eggs are smaller 

 than those of the Common Linnet, and are easily distinguished from 

 them by their more decided blue ground and darker red spots, which 

 often assume the form of dashes or short crooked lines on the large 

 end of the shell, almost approaching the Bunting type of markings. 

 As to Mr. Wilson's question : Which is the most common bird which 

 the Cuckoo depends on for the rearing of its young ? — in the British 

 Islands the Meadow Pipit is well known to be the commonest foster- 

 parent. Indeed, on moors and uncultivated ground it is comparatively 

 seldom that any other is selected. Of a Cuckoo's egg deposited in a 

 Twite's nest I have never heard of an authentic instance, and I would 

 be much obliged to any one who would inform me of one. The instance 

 mentioned by Mr. Butterfield (' Zoologist,' 1904, p. 315) can hardly 

 be regarded as substantiated. Certain of the Finches are,, I know, 

 occasionally chosen by the Cuckoo as the foster-parents of its young. 

 I have myself known Cuckoo's eggs to be found in nests of the 

 Chaffinch, Corn Bunting, Yellowhammer, and Beed Bunting. These 

 birds, though largely seed-eaters, feed their young entirely upon insects 

 and their larvse, therefore they are quite capable of rearing a young 

 Cuckoo. On the contrary, I have never known of a Cuckoo's egg in 

 the nest of a Linnet, Redpoll, Goldfinch, Bullfinch, or Greenfinch. 

 These feed their young on predigested seeds by disgorging (as also does 

 the Twite), a method of feeding which would not be natural to a young- 

 Cuckoo. Cuckoo's eggs may have been found exceptionally in the 

 nests of one or other of these species. I have not met with a case 

 myself, but I know there are cases on record of Cuckoo's eggs having 

 been found in such totally unsuitable nests as those even of the Wood 

 Pigeon or Little Grebe (Seebohm's ' British Birds,' vol. ii. p. 383). 

 But these instances may have been due to the fact that the parent 

 Cuckoo was unable to find a suitable nest ; or they may point to this 

 strange habit of the Cuckoo being of recent evolution, and as yet 

 imperfectly formed. And is there any proof that the young Cuckoo 

 has ever been actually reared by such a strange foster-parent, or by 

 any bird which feeds its young on vegetable matter ? If any such case 

 has come to the knowledge of any reader of ' The Zoologist,' it would 

 be most interesting to have it recorded, to know the evidence and the 

 details if they have been observed. — Allan Ellison (Watton at Stone, 

 Herts). 



[Mr. Bidwell, in his " List of Birds that have occurred in Great 

 Britain in whose nest the egg of the Cuckoo has been found " (Trans. 



