Note on an Unusual Habitat of Marchantia Polymorpha. 251 
Skipton up at Grouse Cottage who had seen the white Cuckoo 
the Sunday before, and who had brought their friends to see 
it. It will be of interest to note if these albino birds will 
be observed or shot whilst on migration or in their winter 
quarters, or if they will return to their native heaths. 
The female Cuckoo usually very carefully lays her egg 
so that it will synchronise with the hatching of the egg of the 
foster parents. But occasionally, just before the eve of her 
departure, she will do some extraordinary things. I have 
known a Cuckoo towards the end of June lay two eggs in an 
old disused and empty nest of a Pied Wagtail ! ! A friend 
(Mr. A. E. Pullan, of Burley-in-Wharfedale) sent me word 
that a gamekeeper had shown him and some friends the 
nest of a Meadow Pipit on Sunday, June 25th, which con- 
tained a newly hatched Cuckoo, and in which the young 
Pipits were about a week old and pen -feathered. The young 
Cuckoo was working ceaselessly and heroically to eject its 
large foster children, but without much success. I immediately 
wrote Mr. Pullan to have this nest watched as much as possible, 
as it was a most interesting case as to whether the Cuckoo, 
or the Pipits, or both, would survive. He replied that he was 
doing so, and that one of his friends who had stayed on the 
moor until late on the Sunday evening was of the opinion 
that the Cuckoo would live. The following day all were alive 
in the nest, but the Cuckoo was not nearly so active. On 
the next day (Tuesday) the young Cuckoo was dead and had 
been thrown out of the nest by its foster parents. It had 
paid the penalty for its mother’s mistake, which Nature 
rarely forgets or forgives. 
NOTE ON AN UNUSUAL HABITAT OF 
MARCHANTIA POLYMORPHA, AND ITS SEASONAL 
ASPECTS. 
W. RAYMOND PHILIPSON, B.A. 
In June, 1932, it was noticed that a considerable area 
of the reed bed at the west end of Gosforth Lake, Northumber- 
land, was thickly carpeted with Marchantia. Since then the 
spot has been visited at intervals and search has been made 
for Marchantia in other parts of the reeds, without success. 
As the reeds had been cut over just the area that the liverwort 
spread, it is suggested that this is a factor essential for its 
success. Upon enquiry it was found that this area had been 
cut regularly for ten years, and nowhere else had the reeds 
been cut, except for a small patch at the other end of the lake, 
which had been cut for three years. In the autumn the 
1933 Nov. 1 
