Antoine Joseph Lottinger's first book on the common cuckoo and its fosterers: a rare book with three different title-pages

Abstract

Responses of fosterers to parasitism by the common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), recorded experimentally by Antoine Joseph Lottinger in eastern France between 1772 and 1775, were published in a book in 1775. Typographical errors in the text indicate that all extant copies of the book constitute a single impression from standing type, yet three separate title-pages were printed and circulated. Successive title-pages provided slightly different information, providing clues about the book's circulation. Initially driven by curiosity, Lottinger's work was fuelled by a desire to dispel a culture of misconceptions held by many naturalists about the cuckoo's effects on its fosterers. He was among the first naturalists to conduct egg-exchange experiments in the field specifically to record what fosterers would accept or reject.