286 Cuckoo hatched by the Pied Wagtail^ 



to the cause of the death of the four young wagtails, it was 

 agreed that the young cuckoo's greater bulk and strength, 

 and its using this faculty in promotion of its own ease and 

 convenience, had hoisted the young wagtails out of the nest, 

 and that the wagtails had died from the cold. The parent 

 wagtails now showed the greatest care and tenderness towards 

 the young cuckoo, and fed it with insects (and, perhaps, 

 with small worms), which they collected with pleasing diligence 

 and dexterity. Lawns kept shortly mown, and a sluggish 

 narrow watercourse were adjacent. An almost incessant 

 watch was kept over the nest by one or other of the pair ; 

 and, when a person approached the place where it was, they 

 evinced their parental solicitude by calling with great eager- 

 ness, and flying about in an excited manner. They succeeded 

 in rearing it, and it flew from the nest on June 9. It was 

 seen again on June 12. on the top of a wall near to the place 

 of the nest, and while it was sitting here an amusing and 

 instructive sight presented itself; a thrush, which, probably, 

 had a nest close by, in an adjoining garden, evinced the most 

 passionate and marked antipathy towards the young cuckoo, 

 by approaching it with feathers ruffled, beak open, and utter- 

 ing an earnest cry : some small birds, too, drew near, as 

 if to exhibit their dislike, and abet the thrush. A cuckoo 

 sang in the neighbourhood of the garden at the time the 

 young one was growing strong enough to fly ably ; but one 

 might have sung there had no young one been near. 



From 1824 to 1828 one or more cuckoos were hatched in 

 this garden ; but I do not find that I have any notes on them. 

 I remember that one young one had one wing so deformed 

 that it could never have flown. This deformity seemed to 

 have been induced by the condition of the nest, which was 

 so placed against an old wall, that the corner of a brick or 

 stone projected, in some degree, into it, and lessened the 

 space of the interior, or made, at least, its figure unusual: 

 I suppose that the wing of the cuckoo, while the bird was 

 yet too tender and powerless to shift itself, had lain against 

 this projecting body, and thus become deformed. This in- 

 dividual was taken, caged, and fed experimentally, &c, for 

 for some rather short time, when it died. Young cuckoos, 

 from the time they have become fledged to that at which they 

 quit the nest, are in the habit, during the day, as they sit in 

 the nest, of uttering a harsh, one-syllabled chirp of some 

 length, and of a plaintive tone, indicative of, and induced by 

 hunger, I presume, and repeated every few minutes : any one 

 familiar with this chirp would, I think, be able to trace a 

 young cuckoo by it anywhere. 



