120 



On certain Peculiar Hies in the 



the continuance of the species under peculiar conditions : for (he 

 well remarks) had this not been so, wo are driven to the alternative, 

 that the Warblers and others, which generally recognize so easily- 

 all strange eggs, casting them out of the nest, 1 or else deserting it, 

 in regard to the Cuckoo's eggs are quite blind, and cannot recog- 

 nize the red eggs among their green clutches, 2 and vice versa. 

 Therefore, (continues our author) I do not hesitate to set forth, as 

 a law of nature, that the eggs of the Cuckoo are in a very con- 

 siderable degree coloured and marked, like the eggs of those birds 

 in whose nests they are about to be laid, in order that they might 

 the less easily be recognized by the foster parents, as substituted. 3 

 The next question examined is, " whether the same hen Cuckoo 

 lays eggs of the same colour and markings only, and so is she limited 

 to the nests of but one species ? or else, does the same individual 

 lay eggs of different colour and markings, according to the char- 

 acter of the eggs, amongst which her own will be intruded ? " Both 

 these theories have their advocates ; those in favour of the last 

 view advancing the hypothesis that the sight of the eggs lying in 

 the nest, has such an influence on the hen which is just about to 

 lay, that the egg which is ready to be laid, assumes the colour and 

 markings of those before her, and for this, physiological reasons 

 are adduced, and analogies, not forgetting the well-known and 

 successful experiments of the patriarch Jacob. 4 But Dr, Baldamus 

 rejects this opinion, and contends for the other view, (viz. that the 

 same Cuckoo lays eggs of one colour and markings only, and so is 

 limited to the nests of but one species ;) and this he proves by 

 personal experience and observation ; by the fact that he has found 

 two differently marked Cuckoo's eggs in one nest ; that he has also 



1 Montagu's Ornith. Diet. Introduction, p. iv. 

 2 Or " loiters " as our "Wiltshire rustics say : " gelege " in German. 

 3 It is worthy of remark, that whereas it has been often asserted that the egg 

 of the Cuckoo is by no means found in any proportion to the number of old birds 

 (for it is not a rare species) and every female would seem to lay annually from 

 four to six eggs ; the difficulty is at once disposed of, if Dr. Baldamus' theory 

 is correct, inasmuch as the great similarity of the egg of the Cuckoo to those of 

 the nest in which it is placed, may deceive human eyes no less than those of the 

 foster parents. 



1 Genesis, chap.- xxx. 37 et seq. 



