72 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



together on the Dee Cop, about a mile from this city. There were 

 about eight or ten of them. With binoculars I had a good view of a 

 male not many yards distant, before they took flight across the river, 

 besides hearing their thin characteristic call-note, which alone would 

 put all question as to identity beyond doubt. I have found this inter- 

 esting bird not uncommon during the breeding season in certain districts 

 in the neighbouring counties of Denbigh and Flint, but hitherto there 

 has not been any authentic record of this species in Cheshire, so far as 

 I know. The nearest place to the Cheshire border where I have 

 previously met with the bird is Hope, Flint, some three and a half 

 miles outside the county boundary, where I heard one in full song on 

 Aug. 10th, 1905.— S. G. Cummings (Chester). 



Shore-Lark in Cheshire. — Mr. Lewis Jones, of Hilbre Island, in- 

 forms me that on Dec. 19th, 1905, he watched a Shore-Lark (Otocorys 

 alpestris) on that island. He was about eight or ten yards from the 

 bird, and was able to make a rough sketch of it, showing the distribu- 

 tion of colour. Mr. Jones kindly showed me this sketch, and there is 

 no doubt about his identification of the species, and, as he did not 

 notice the erectile tufts above the eyes, it was presumably either a 

 female or an immature bird. He has never before seen a Shore Lark 

 at Hilbre, and this is apparently the first record for the county, though 

 the species has been met with on the Lancashire coast north of the 

 Mersey Estuary. — T. A. Coward (Bowdon, Cheshire). 



The Cuckoo and its Foster-parents. — Mr. Tuck's caution with 

 regard to spurious Cuckoo clutches (Zool. 1905, p. 434) is very neces- 

 sary for these times. In pursuing my search for an authentic instance 

 of a Cuckoo's egg deposited by the parent bird in a Twite's nest, I have 

 not found it easy to discover one which would command universal 

 acceptance, though I have come across a good deal of evidence that 

 Cuckoo clutches are not infrequently made up by unscrupulous persons 

 for the benefit of incautious oologists. Great circumspection should 

 be exercised before accepting a rare Cuckoo clutch as authentic, when it 

 is remembered how easy fraud is in the matter, and how difficult to 

 detect. During my investigations I had the pleasure of examining 

 some two hundred Cuckoo clutches in one private collection, which 

 had been purchased but not yet examined or arranged by the owner, 

 who is one of our most famous ornithologists. Among these were two 

 clutches in which the "Cuckoos' eggs" were obviously a Sky-Lark's 

 and a House- Sparrow's respectively ! There were about twenty clutches 

 of Greenfinch, Linnet, Bullfinch, or other seed-eating birds, with 

 Cuckoo's eggs, but nearly all of these had been obtained from one 



