318 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



ever ; but in the present case my hope was doomed to disappointment, 

 for the bird died on the morning of June 6th, from lack, not so much, 

 I believe, of suitable food, as of the proper amount of heat. It was 

 only about two days old when it was brought home. 



Adjoining Baildon Moor is a wood which is a famous rendezvous 

 for Cuckoos, and although I found about eight nests of Titlarks 

 with four eggs in each nest within a short distance from those con- 

 taining Cuckoo's eggs alluded to above, yet in no other nest was 

 there to be found a Cuckoo's egg, which is somewhat remarkable if 

 Cuckoos lay as many eggs as is sometimes alleged. I may add that 

 all the Titlarks' eggs contained in the above nests were laid subse- 

 quently to those I found in the nests of Titlarks on May 24th and 

 30th, and these could not all be unsuitable hosts for Cuckoos' eggs; 

 and if Cuckoos do not abstract one egg from the nests of the dupes 

 at or about the time of the introduction of their eggs, how have we 

 to account for three eggs only in the nests of those I found, and four 

 eggs in all the other nests not containing Cuckoo's eggs ? — E. P. 

 Buttebfield (Wilsden, Bradford). 



CH^TOPODA. 



A Note on the Behaviour of Nereis fucata. — On p. 238 of the 

 present volume of the ' Zoologist ' I described the escape of a Nereis 

 fucata (which was about 3 in. in length) from the jaws of two 

 Hermit-Crabs, and mentioned that the worm retreated beneath the 

 pebbles on the floor of the aquarium. A few days after this incident 

 the Hermit-Crabs were removed from the tank. The tank remained 

 empty for nearly three weeks, and during this time I did not see the 

 worm, which I supposed to be dead. Several newly-captured Hermit- 

 Crabs and a commensal Sea-Anemone (Sagartia parasitica) were now 

 placed in the aquarium, and soon afterwards (within a quarter of an 

 hour) the Nereis made its appearance from beneath the pebbles. It 

 moved rapidly to and fro upon the floor of the aquarium, and then, 

 forcing its way under the whelk-shell of one of the Hermit-Crabs, 

 tried to enter the shell beneath the body of the crustacean. The 

 Hermit-Crab jerked its body in and out of the shell in such a way as 

 either to prevent or deter the worm from gaining an entry, and then 

 scuttled away, leaving the worm on the floor. The Nereis now re- 

 entered the pebbles, and I saw nothing of it for two days. On the 

 third morning I removed a half-digested mass which was encum- 

 bering the disc of the Sea-Anemone (the diameter of whose circle of 

 extended tentacles was about 1J in.), and discovered that this mass 



