230 Wild Birds and their Haunts 



down a bird, in order to prevent the blood from staining 

 its plumage, I was not a little surprised, on opening its 

 bill for this purpose, to find in its throat an entire egg, 

 which I knew immediately, from its form, size, and 

 beautiful whiteness, to belong to the didric. Delighted 

 at length, after so many useless efforts, at having obtained 

 a confirmation of my suspicions, I loudly called my faith- 

 ful Klaas, who was only a few paces from me, to whom 

 I imparted my discovery with much pleasure, as he had 

 used his best exertions to second my views. Klaas, on 

 seeing the egg in the bird's gullet, told me that, after 

 killing female cuckoos he had frequently observed a 

 newly broken egg lying upon the ground near where they 

 had fallen, which he supposed they had dropped, in their 

 fall, from being at that moment ready to lay. I re- 

 collect very well, that when this good Hottentot brought 

 me the fruits of his sports, he frequently remarked, as he 

 pointed to the cuckoo, ' ' This one laid her egg as she 

 fell from the tree ! " 



Although I was convinced, from this circumstance, 

 that the female cuckoo deposits her egg in the nests of 

 other birds by conveying it in her beak, I was very 

 desirous to collect what facts I could upon the subject. 



But one of the most remarkable circumstances is, 

 that though the birds which feed on grain are more 

 numerous in Southern Africa, and their nests more easily 

 found, the cuckoos never select them for depositing their 

 eggs, but uniformly the nests of birds which feed on 

 insects. 



Dr. Fleming asserts — as almost a solitary authority — 

 that the bird constructs its own nest in some cases and 

 deposits three eggs. Reverend Mr. Wilmot, of Morley, 

 in byegone times makes this assertion : — ' ' I was at- 

 tending some labourers on my farm, when one of them 

 said to me, ' There is a bird's nest in one of the coal- 

 slack hills ; the bird is now sitting, and is exactly like a 

 cuckoo. They say cuckoos never hatch their own eggs 

 otherwise I should have sworn it was one.' He took me 

 to the spot. It was in an open fallow ground ; the bird 

 was upon the nest ; I stood and observed her for some 



