8168 



Birds. 



state of the food in the stomach afforded ample proof that the bird 

 had recently been feeding, of course without so serious an impedi- 

 ment to deglutition as an egg would have been ; it therefore only 

 remains to be decided where the egg was in the meantime. Cases of 

 this kind are usually met by the argument that the bird was not the 

 parent of the egg, but that the latter was in the act of being devoured. 

 Truly it would require a most accommodating imagination on the 

 part of any naturalist who would attribute to this interesting species 

 such a marvellous power of oological discrimination, for how can it 

 be even for one instant supposed that the bird is in the habit of 

 seeking out nests for the purpose of abstracting such eggs as have 

 been laid by its own species ? If such really were the case, the habit 

 must belong to the female alone, for I believe I am correct in stating 

 that no instance has yet been recorded of a male cuckoo carrying an 

 egg. Even if all this be admitted, one grave question still remains, 

 viz., by what means does the bird invariably select fresh eggs ? 



It is to be regretted that the shy habits of the cuckoo render the 

 task of becoming acquainted with its history one of such extreme 

 difficulty, and it is only to my good fortune in having resided in 

 neighbourhoods where cuckoos abounded, and perhaps also in no 

 small degree to mere accident, that I attribute my success, compa- 

 ratively trifling though it has been. Still, I trust that the few facts 

 which I have advanced speak sufficiently for themselves, and that 

 other and more competent observers will ere long be enabled to 

 remove all further doubt upon this much-vexed question. 



Henry L. Saxby. 



H.M.S. c Devonshire,' Sheerness, 

 August 1, 1862. 



Occurrence of the Norfolk Plover in Cambridgeshire, with a few Remarks upon its 

 Habits. — This species, which, to iny knowledge, has never before occurred in any 

 numbers, has this year been very plentiful, as many as two or three dozen eggs 

 having been exposed for sale at one fishmonger's shop in Cambridge, and I have also 

 seen a good number of old birds. A man brougbt me a nearly full-grown young bird, 

 and had another, which got accidentally killed. T kept my bird alive, and apparently 

 in the enjoyment of good health, for several days, and I think I dare venture to say it 

 would have been easily tamed, or, in other words, quite reconciled to roam ..bout in a 

 moderate-sized enclosure, had it not unfortunately partaken of something in the way 

 of salt meat. It devoured worms, slugs, caterpillars and blowflies; it had. a peculiar 

 dexterity in detaching a snail from its outer covering, a shake of its plumage after this 

 feat evidently pourtraying its satisfaction at its success. To watch its movements, 

 which were of the most active and sprightly kind, afforded me the greatest pleasure: 



