NOTES AND QUERIES. 275 



time a probable solution of what happened : that the Cuckoo located 

 the nest when it contained one egg, then, selecting the nest for her 

 own egg, threw out the egg of the Chaffinch. The Chaffinches 

 having discovered their first egg taken, forsook ; this is well known 

 amongst us all, that birds having their first eggs taken, often, I will 

 not say always, forsake ; then the Cuckoo, returning later with her egg, 

 placed it in the empty nest. I> found a Blackcap's nest a few years 

 ago in a stone-quarry a little south-east of Wells, containing a 

 Cuckoo's egg and four of the foster-parent, and underneath the nest, 

 stuck in the brambles, was another egg of the Blackcap, which helps 

 to prove that the Cuckoo often ejects one egg of the dupe, especially 

 if there are five ; but I have often found a Cuckoo's egg, with five 

 others, in the nest. — Stanley Lewis (Wells, Somerset). 



A Pair of Buzzards with two Nests. — Early last May I came 

 across an instance of a pair of Buzzards building, or at least 

 occupying, two nests before laying. Both nests were situated amidst 

 beautiful scenery in a glen-side wood, in oak trees ; one nest was a 

 perfectly new one, the other was an old one remodelled. Both 

 were edged around with fresh green ivy sprays. The eggs were laid 

 in the new nest, which, as far as I know, now contains young ones, 

 as the female was sitting closely, so I was informed, on May 26th. — 

 Stanley Lewis. 



Greenfinches occupying Blackbird's old Nest. — On June 10th 

 last I found a Greenfinch's nest with five eggs built in the cup of an 

 old Blackbird's nest in ivy, at Croscombe, near Wells ; the nest was 

 well down below the level of the Blackbird's and could not be easily 

 seen. The nesting-site is very unusual and the eggs also are unusual, 

 being a nice cream-coloured set with a few very faint spots on the 

 larger end. — Stanley Lewis. 



Cuckoo's Egg in Unfinished Nest of Goldcrest. — With further 

 reference to the habit of the Cuckoo dealt with by Mr. J. Steele 

 Elliott in the ' Zoologist ' (June), the following incident might be 

 worth recording. On June 10th this year I found a Cuckoo's egg 

 in the nest of a Goldcrest, built in the usual situation at the end of 

 one of the lower sprays of a big Douglas fir. There was only this 

 one egg, and the fact that the nest was unfinished proves conclusively 

 that in this case at least the Cuckoo inserted her egg in a nest that 

 had not yet held its rightful eggs. The nest was, in fact, one of the 

 unlined structures that are not infrequently to be found in the vicinity 



