while sitting without covering the eggs with leaves, to preserve them at an equal temperature.'" "The only instance I ever met with," continues Gosse, "while not conclusive, is rather in favour of this opinion than opposed to it. In July I found a Blackbird's nest in a Bastard Cedar (_Guazuma_); it was a rather large mass of interwoven twigs, lined with leaves, eight crimson eggs were in the nest, and the shells of many more broken, and scattered beneath the tree. The eggs were about as large as a pullet's, very regularly oval, of a greenish blue, but covered with a coating of white chalky substance, which was much scratched and eroded on them all, and which was displaced with but little force." [Illustration: THE ANI, OR SAVANNA BLACKBIRD (_Crotophaga ani_).] [Illustration: THE WRINKLED-BEAKED TICK-EATER (_Crotophaga rugirostris_).] The WRINKLED-BEAKED TICK-EATER The WRINKLED-BEAKED TICK-EATER (_Crotophaga rugirostris_) is somewhat larger than the Ani; its beak is also longer, and covered with four or five wrinkles or ridges. The plumage is of a dull blueish black; the feathers on the head, throat, and upper breast are edged with violet, and those of the back and belly bordered with a rich metallic green. The eye is greyish brown, the beak and feet are black. This species is fourteen inches long, the wing measures six, and the tail seven inches. * * * * * The COUCALS, or SPURRED CUCKOOS (_Centropodes_), a family of strange birds inhabiting Africa, the East Indies, New Holland, and the Malay Islands, possess a very powerful, short, and much-curved beak, which is compressed at its sides; the tarsi are high, and toes comparatively short; the hinder toe is usually armed with a very long and almost straight spur-like claw; the wings are short and rounded, and the tail (composed of ten feathers) graduated, and either of moderate size or very long. The extremely harsh plumage is similarly coloured in both sexes; the young differ in a striking manner from their parents, and only acquire the same hues as the adults in the third year.