18 APRIL 1931, Page 17

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sm,—I collected eggs at

two periods of my life, and amongst them I had cuckoo eggs. I found a bluish egg in a nest where the remainder were a dull spotted white. I have bought supposed cuckoo eggs, but mostly as to colour, white or white with spots. I arrived at the conclusion that the female bird laid an egg with the colour or markings, more or less, of the nest that she was reared in—and like other birds, especially migrants, visits the same spot for maternal purposes.