430 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
and built a compact little nest inside, containing four eggs of the ordinary 
colour. The young of this species have since flown.—StanLtEy Lewis 
(Mount Pleasant, Wells, Somerset). 
A Cuckoo’s Economy in Question.—Ornithologists of a speculative 
turn of mind may be interested to learn that during the last week of May, 
in 1896, I found a Meadow Pipit’s (Anthus pratensis) nest on the lower 
slopes of Aran, a well-known mountain in North Wales. In addition to 
one solitary egg belonging to the lawful owners, the nest contained a 
Cuckoo’s egg. The former I left in situ; the latter I appropriated for 
reasons which need not here be specified, despite the fact that egg-collecting 
then as a hobby was with mea thing of the past. On retracing my steps 
some six hours later, I turned aside to have another look at the nest in 
question, and was surprised to find that the Meadow Pipit’s egg had been 
hatched in the interim, the callow youngster lying dead in the nest. I say 
“surprised ” advisedly, for though I had not examined the commoner egg 
at all critically in the morning, I had nevertheless satisfied myself before 
abstracting it that the Cuckoo’s egg was absolutely fresh, and such was 
subsequently proved to be the case. 
Now the main points of interest are as follows: What agency had been 
instrumental in removing the other eggs, which it is quite legitimate to 
assume had been originally laid? A Meadow Pipit’s almost invariable 
clutch, I may observe, is four to six; not one odd egg. | Again, admitting 
for the sake of argument that sundry eggs had been removed, what was the 
motive underlying their removal, assuming the Cuckoo to have been the 
culprit? Oologists of experience will not need to be told that when Voles 
plunder little birds’ nests, they usually make a clean sweep—in time and 
by degrees—of all the eggs; while there are but few birds which will allow 
themselves to be robbed of every egg but one, yet still continue sitting, and 
to this category, in my experience, Meadow Pipits do certainly not belong. 
Another interesting point, too, is this: a perfectly fresh Cuckoo’s egg is 
found side by side with a Meadow Pipit’s egg on the point of hatching; 
what then becomes of the alleged prescience, or intelligence, or instinct, or 
inherited memory on the part of the Cuckoo in always arranging things so 
adroitly that no hitch shall occur in the due incubation of its eggs if left 
unmolested by the foster-parents? For in this particular instance, had 
there been no interference on my part, the young Meadow Pipit, in the 
event of all having gone well with it, would have been fledged and away 
before the Cuckoo’s egg was hatched, even supposing the foster-parent to 
have “sat” pretty assiduously--which I doubt—after its own young one 
had emerged from the shell! 
Howsoever the facts are to be accounted for, I do not disguise my per- 
sonal conviction that the Cuckoo herself abstracted the surplus eggs of the 
