Magpie and Cuckoo.—The fact recorded by the Rev. O. M. Feilden as to the nesting of the Magpie is extraordinary, but requires more evidence ere we can accept as proved that which may have been evolved from a fortuitous chain of circumstances. Concerning the question as to that feathered mystery, the Cuckoo, it will I think have come under the notice of every observer, as of myself, that now and then a Cuckoo's egg is found under circumstances—such as in a nest situated in a brush-wood stack—which positively forbid the hypothesis that it could have been laid in the ordinary manner, In the Field of July 1st, 1876, an account is given of the fading of a Cuckoo's egg in a Flycatcher’s nest in a hollow tree, the orifice being too small to admit the entrance of any bird so large as a Cuckoo. Again the same paper of July 15th, 1876, notices the discovery of a young Cuckoo in a Wren's nest, situated on the rafters of a shed, in such a position as to prevent the ingress of a bird any larger than its foster mother. That the Cuckoo must occasionally lay its egg first and then carry it in its bill, is, I think, partly proven by the foregoing instances,even without the testimony of a traveller—Le Vaillant {?) I think—who actually shot a South African Cuckoo in the act of carrying its egg in its bill. Morris and other authors mention—on apparently good authority—that the European Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus L.) also has been shot in the act of carrying its egg, and if so does not this prove the possibility of the introduction of the egg by the bill into nests difficult of access? Howbeit, the subject is one infinitely interesting, and well worthy of being worked out in the coming spring by the ornithological readers of the "Midland Naturalist,"—A. M. B., Birmingham.
Gleanings.
The Wollaston Gold Medal, of the Geological Society has just been awarded to Dr. Thomas Wright, F.R.S.E., F.G.S., &c., President of the Cheltenham Natural Science Society, (one of the societies forming the Midland Union of Natural History Societies,) in recognition of his detailed researches, continued for many years, on the structure, classification, and distribution of the Fossil Echinodermata, published by the Palæontographical Society, and for his other "Memoirs on the Jurassic and Tertiary Strata of England," contributed to the Geological and other kindred societies.
Professor Fries, of the University of Upsala, the well-known Swedish Botanist, died recently at the age of 83.
The Rev. Andrew Bloxam, M.A., Rector of Harborough Magna, died, we regret to have to record, on February 2nd, in his 77th year. He was one of the best botanists Warwickshire has produced. In an early number we purpose giving a memoir of his life and some account of his labours as a Naturalist.
The Late Andrew Murray, F.L.S., has, for some years past, been known as a hard-working Entomologist, engaged in investigating the injury done to field and garden crops by insects. The tiller of the soil has not known how to meet his insect foes, and has even confounded friends with foes by not knowing the metamorphic phases through which insects pass. Connected officially with the Royal Horticultural Society, to whose scientific committees questions respecting damage to crops are often referred, Mr. Murray was so impressed with the general ignorance of insect life that he made suggestions to the Privy Council which led to the formation of a collection of economic entomology, under the direction of the Science and Art Department. This collection, now for
