in the floor of the nest. As I was going that day on a visit to Mr. Aplin, I took the nest with me; we extracted the egg from its hole, blew it and replaced it, and had the nest photographed.[1] This is, I believe, the first instance on record in this country of a Cuckoo's egg being laid in a Marsh Warbler's nest. Whether this can throw any light on the peculiar position of the egg in the nest may indeed be doubtful; but I am inclined to guess that this Cuckoo is in the habit of depositing her eggs in the nests of Sedge Warblers or Whitethroats, and that, finding herself too late for these (for a Whitethroat that had a nest hard by had been sitting a long time, and the Sedge Warblers in the osiers had young already), she put the egg into the Marsh Warbler's nest when only one or perhaps two eggs had been laid in it. And it is just possible that the striking contrast between the Cuckoo's egg and those of the intended foster-parent enabled the latter to discover the intruder, which she buried in the bottom of the nest out of sight, adding some new materials, e.g. the wool I have mentioned, with this end in view. However this may be, the facts are as I have described them, and the nest will be placed in the Oxford Museum, with the Cuckoo's egg thus buried, so that anyone who may be studying the ways of the Cuckoo and its victims will be able to form an opinion for himself. On July 1st I was glad to find that the birds were evidently at work on a new nest; the cock was singing vigorously in heavy rain at six in the afternoon, a sure sign of renewed activity. After a short absence I returned on the 6th, to find that another of the three nests had been discovered and destroyed; but in the third the young were just ready to fly. They are now (July 9th) about in the osiers with their parents, whose warning notes, more musical and agreeable than the harsh grating of the Sedge Warblers, are to be heard on every side. The plumage of the young birds is, as I observed two years ago, much darker and more rufous than that of the parents, and the throat and breast are of a warm buff. I may add that the vigorous singing still going on shows clearly that one new nest at least has been built within the last few days.—W. Warde Fowler (Kingham, Chipping Norton).
On the Nesting of the Spotted Flycatcher.—A pair of Common Flycatchers (Muscicapa grisola) nesting in my garden built their first nest on the spouting against the house, which unfortunately was pulled away during building repairs. The second nest, which they started to build a few days after, on May 31 st, was placed in a rose tree nailed to the house within a few feet of the old site. On June 6th the nest was finished, and on the 7th the first egg was laid. To notify at what hour the eggs were laid, I visited the nest at 5 a.m. the next morning without finding a further addition; the
- ↑ It may be as well to state that the Cuckoo's egg was quite fresh when blown; it was small even for a Cuckoo's, but had the usual hard shell.
