52 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
ground and springing far up the trees. Near a small 
creek indications of a rhinoceros at play were visible; small 
bushes torn up, and clods of earth thrown about, and a 
~ general wreck made of everything within a small area. 
In this district, too, I saw the beautiful Colobus monkey, 
which, in spite of its striking black and white colouring, 
was difficult to notice amongst the juniper trees with Jong 
lichen hanging to the branches. 
Although in British East Africa very few insects were 
geen, in .Uganda they were very numerous, especially 
lepidoptera, and here I met the famous driver ant, which 
was trekking through the town of Entebbe in millions. 
- a RE TO 
EGG-CARRYING BY BIRDS. 
By Thos. Steel, F.L.S. 
The manner in which certain cuckoos manage to con- 
_yey their eggs and deposit them in the nests of small birds, 
in which it is obvious the eggs cannot be laid in the ordin- 
ary way, because of the size of the cuckoo relative to the 
nest, has been a matter of speculation for many years. 
“Accounts of observations on the subject have been pub- 
lished from time to time, and so far as I have noticed, it 
seems to be generally conceded that the bird lays the egg 
on the ground, then grasps it in its bill, and so conveys 
it to the foster-nest. 
It has always seemed to me a most difficult feat for 
a bird with a bill shaped like that of the cuckoo to carry 
an egg in this manner without either crushing it or allow- 
ing it to slip out of its bill. 
~ Some observations which I have made on the domes- 
tie fowl suggest a method of conveyance at once safer and 
more convenient. 
If one watches a hen eathering scattered eggs into a — 
nest it will be seen that she pulls them to her by means 
of her lower bill, gently pressing the egg against her 
breast, and thus lifting it into the nest. 
In my poultry run, which was a small paddock, in 
“which were bushes and logs, a hen had made a_ nest 
alongside one of the logs. T removed some of the eggs and 
placed them on the ground on ‘the other side of the log, 
‘ 
