Letters , Extracts from Correspondence , Notices , fyc. 361 
conclusion, in spite of the many difficulties which his residence 
in N$w York and the critical circumstances of the times have 
raised against him. It would be untrue to say it is not open to 
criticism upon some points; but how few undertakings of the 
sort rise above the standard of mediocrity ! 
We cannot but conscientiously commend Mr. Elliot's work to 
our brother-ornithologists, and advise them to make an early 
application for copies of it, as the drawings are now erased from 
the stones, and the number left for sale is very limited. 
We have several other American publications in hand, a 
notice of which we are compelled, by want of space, to defer 
until our next issue. 
XXXI.— Letters, Extracts from Correspondence , Notices , fyc. 
We have received the following letters, addressed “ To the 
Editor— 
To the Editor of ‘ The Ibis .' 
Sir,— Having been enabled, by another winter in Egypt, to 
continue the observations on the habits and nidification of the 
Spotted Cuckoo ( Cuculus glandarius ), made last year in company 
with my friend Mr. Allen, and communicated by him in the 
September Number of ‘ The Ibis 3 *, I venture to send you the 
following extracts from my note-book, trusting that the interest 
of the subject will prove sufficient excuse for the rough form in 
which they are presented, especially as I consider that they 
clearly establish the fact of the parasitic habits of this bird, at 
least as far as Egypt is concerned. Last year I had the pleasure 
of presenting to the Zoological Society a young C. glandarius, 
taken by me from a nest of Corvus cornix; and this year, as will 
be seen from the subjoined notes, I have obtained, in repeated 
instances, both eggs and young birds from similar situations. 
Jan. 20th. Near Thebes, shot two C. glandarius in a “sont”- 
grove, the female with ovaries very much developed. Seeing a 
nest of Corvus cornix in one of the trees of the same grove, I 
* See Ibis, 1862, p. 357. 
