NOTES AND QUERIES. 73 



neighbourhood by one obscure individual, whose initials were given as 

 authentication. I have examined one clutch of Twite with Cuckoo, 

 and have been informed of several others, but all these were obtained 

 by Mr. James Ellison from Steeton Moor, Yorkshire, the authority 

 referred toby Mr. Booth (Zool. 1905, p. 433). Two other dealers from 

 whom I have heard, who have collected on moors near the same 

 district — one of them for fifty years — inform me that, although well 

 acquainted with the Twite and its nest, they have never found one with 

 a Cuckoo's egg, much as they have desired to do so. But the case is 

 one in which it is difficult to obtain satisfactory proof either on the 

 positive or the negative side. Independently of dealers, there is, I 

 admit, good evidence for the occasional depositing of a Cuckoo's egg 

 in a Twite's nest. The authority of Mr. Bidwell, Dr. Key, and others, 

 quoted by the Editor, is certainly great. I have not been able to look 

 up the references, and will not question them, as these well-known 

 ornithologists are not likely to value evidence at more than it is 

 worth. A Cuckoo, no doubt, may place its egg in almost any nest 

 which it can get at. I have lately heard of a case, on what seemed 

 good authority, of a Cuckoo's egg having been found in a Pheasant's 

 nest, the female Cuckoo having been seen to fly from the spot. But 

 this, I think, has been made clear, that for the Cuckoo in one neigh- 

 bourhood to deposit its eggs exclusively in the nests of the seed- 

 eating Twite was a priori very improbable. Whether a seed-eating 

 bird is able to rear a young Cuckoo is a question upon which I 

 would now invite evidence. Has anyone ever seen a young Cuckoo 

 reared by a Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Bullfinch, or Linnet ? Mr. Moffat's 

 interesting experiment (Zool. 1905, p. 431) loses a little of its value 

 from the fact that it was made thirty years ago, and that he has kept 

 no record of it, depending, as he informs me, solely upon memory. It 

 ought, however, to be easily repeated, and perhaps has been tried by 

 others whose experiences would be interesting. " Sauce for the goose 

 is sauce for the gander," but it does not follow that a strange food 

 which succeeded with young Hedge- Sparrows would also succeed with 

 a young Cuckoo. It is well known that a nestling Thrush or Black- 

 bird can be reared on bread soaked in milk, but in the ease of the young 

 Cuckoo there would be other considerations besides the strangeness of 

 the food. The usual foster-parents of the Cuckoo are long-billed 

 insectivorous birds, and anyone who has watched a Wagtail or Meadow- 

 Pipit feeding a young Cuckoo with an insect held at the tip of its beak, 

 and darted quickly into the open gape of its monster child, apparently 



Zool. 4th ser vol. X., February, 1906. a 



