11 APRIL 1931, Page 20

THE CUCKOO [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

SIR,—In the article on the cuckoo, in your issue of March 28th, the writer appears to doubt the truth of the statement by the German naturalist that " the cuckoo is able to colour her eggs, so that they will match the eggs of the foster parent." But one has only to look at the case of cuckoo's eggs in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington to see this is probably true, as they vary very much in colour, apparently to match the eggs of the foster-parent !

As to the clergyman related, " who travels from place to place, simulating the well-known call." This is a very easy trick. I learnt it at school, and can guarantee to bring any cuckoo, within hearing distance, during the mating season, into the tree over my head, and have done it scores of times!