332 Observations on the Cuckoo. 



For my own part, I see no cause whatever to have recourse 

 to so extraordinary a phenomenon, to explain any facts with 

 which we are at present acquainted. There is reason to be- 

 lieve, I think, from the appearance of the ovarium of a cuckoo, 

 that the eggs are not laid on consecutive days, as is the case 

 with birds in general, and that usually but one set, comprising 

 only about five or six, is laid in a season* (which, by the 

 way, are quite as many as are ordinarily produced by the 

 nightingale) ; and I think that this view is further borne out 

 by the very small number of cuckoos' eggs, and of young 

 cuckoos, which are ever found. I also do not imagine, with 

 some people, that the hen cuckoo ever experiences any great 

 difficulty in finding a sufficient number of suitable nests to 

 lay in, more especially on the supposition that more than a 

 day intervenes between each successive laying : her season for 

 laying is when birds' nests are found in greatest abundance ; 

 and I think it not very improbable, that, whenever she has found 

 one which will answer her purpose, she continues in the im- 

 mediate vicinity of the spot until ready to lay into it.f I am 



* Will any reader mention the latest time in the season at which he has 

 known a cuckoo's egg to have been found ? 



•j" Since writing the above, I have again been reading carefully over 

 Wilson's admirable description of the American cow-bunting, which, not 

 being so shy and solitary a bird as our cuckoo, permits its habits to 

 be more easily and closely watched. The following passage occurs, in 

 which Wilson relates the result of an informant's researches : — " By a 

 minute attention to a number of these birds, when they feed in a par- 

 ticular field in the laying season, the deportment of the female, when 

 the time of laying draws near, becomes particularly interesting. She de- 

 serts her associates, assumes a drooping sickly aspect, and perches upon 

 some eminence where she can reconnoitre the operations of other birds in 

 the process of nidification. If a discovery suitable to her purpose cannot 

 be made from her stand, she becomes more restless, and is seen flitting 

 from tree to tree, till a place of deposit can be found. I once had an oppor- 

 tunity of witnessing a scene of this sort, which I cannot forbear to relate. 

 Seeing a female prying into a bunch of bushes in search of a nest, I deter- 

 mined to see the result, if practicable ; and, knowing how easily they are 

 disconcerted by the near approach of man, I mounted my horse, and pro- 

 ceeded slowly, sometimes seeing and sometimes losing sight of her, till I 

 had travelled nearly two miles along the margin of a creek. She entered 

 every thick place, prying with the strictest scrutiny into places where the 

 small birds usually build ; and, at last, darted suddenly into a thick copse 

 of alders and briers, where she remained five or six minutes, when she 

 returned, soaring above the underwood, to the company she had left feed- 

 ing in the field. Upon entering the covert, I found the nest of a yellow- 

 throat, with an egg of each. ... In the progress of the cow-bird along the 

 creek's side, she entered the thick boughs of a small cedar, and returned 

 several times before she could prevail on herself to quit the place; and, 

 upon examination, I found a" [species of] " sparrow sitting on its nest, on 

 which she no doubt would have stolen in the absence of the owner." Now, 

 much of this corresponds exactly with what I have often observed of the 

 Europeancuckoo. I have seen her sit as if watching the operations of 

 the small birds around her ; have noticed her to become restless, and (as 



