and by other Birds. 287 



Of the cuckoos hatched in this garden since 1828, Mr. 

 Turner, the curator, has supplied the following account: — 



In 1829, three cuckoos were hatched in this garden, two 

 of them in ivy that clothes an old wall, and in two nests of 

 as many pairs of wagtails ; and the other in an alder tree, 

 about 9 ft. from the ground, in a greenfinch's nest. 



In 1830, there were two cuckoos hatched in this garden, 

 near the places in which the young ones had been hatched 

 in the preceding year : both of these had wagtails for their 

 foster-parents. 



In 1831, there was but one cuckoo hatched, to my know- 

 ledge ; which was hatched and reared in a yellowhammer's 

 nest : this nest was built near the ground, in the centre of a 

 large clump of the plant Lysimachia verticillata. 



On July 17. 1832, a friend informed me that he believed 

 that a cuckoo had laid eggs in two nests of wagtails in his gar- 

 den, as he had seen, early one June morning, a cuckoo leave 

 the ivy in which a wagtail had just built; and that on the fol- 

 lowing morning he had observed it to fly from a large crevice 

 in a wall where he had lately found the second nest. He did 

 not, however, take any notice of this at the time ; but, having 

 that morning accidentally discovered one of them to contain 

 a large young bird and five small eggs, he was induced to 

 take a peep at the other, where he found two larger eggs, 

 with three eggs of the wagtails. 



On July 20. I saw the nests : the one in the ivy contained a 

 fine young cuckoo, and four young miserable-looking wagtails, 

 and a rotten egg ; the cuckoo occupied the centre of the nest, 

 which was somewhat flatter (less cupped) than usual. The 

 nest in the wall contained three healthy young wagtails and 

 two cuckoos, which appeared as if very recently hatched. 



On July 24. I visited them again, and in the first I found 

 the cuckoo all alone ; but, on my looking about, I found one 

 of the young wagtails by the side of the nest, and three upon 

 the ground beneath, quite dead. I replaced the living one 

 in the nest ; but I found, next day, that dead upon the ground 

 also ; and, a few days after, the cuckoo had been stolen. In 

 the other nest, although there were two cuckoos, the young 

 wagtails were longer-lived. On July 24. they were all ap- 

 parently well and growing apace ; but the nest was much 

 flattened and extended, and here the two interlopers were in 

 the centre, with the rightful owners ranged around them. It 

 appeared to be very fatiguing to the parent wagtails to supply 

 the youthful party with food, for which their calls were loud 

 and incessant. 



On July 26. all the young wagtails were sitting upon the 



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