79 
accord with those in the adults, and a& 
some authors have described them in that 
stateasadistinctspecies, we have thoughtit 
necessary to give a separate plate, in order 
to elucidate the subject. 
The egg of the Cuckow appears to be 
but little known, and we have not the 
least doubt but that the egg of some other 
bird has either frequently been described 
through mistake, or, that it varies in 
different individuals. Montagu thus de- 
scribes an egg which he took from a 
female Cuckow. "It weighed forty-four 
grains, the colour white, sprinkled with 
two shades of ash-coloured spots, mostly 
at the larger end." Graves says that 
"the eggs are of a dusky white, spotted 
with tints of ash-colour and olive green; 
the spots are more numerous at the lar- 
ger end." Others describe them as re- 
sembling the house sparrow, &c. In a 
female which we dissected last season, 
1816, we found an egg in a perfect slate, 
it was rather larger than that of the house 
sparrow, white, elegantly splashed with 
a blossomish tint, but principally at the 
