3IO CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 



The species is fairly well distributed over our 

 British Islands. The peculiar interest attaching to 

 the Cuckoo entirely centres in its parasitic breeding- 

 habits. In opposition to the natural laws that 

 govern the breeding-instincts of most other birds, 

 such as parental family duties, the bringing up and 

 care for their young, etc., the Cuckoo never takes 

 the trouble to make a nest, but usurps that of some 

 smaller bird. Howard Saunders gives the following 

 list of birds as those generally selected : — Pied 

 Wagtail, Meadow-Pipit or Titlark, Hedge-Sparrow, 

 Sedge-Warbler, Reed- Warbler ; less frequently the 

 Cirl Bunting and Yellow Bunting. All over Europe 

 species of foster-parents are known, ranging in size 

 from the Golden-Crested Wren to the Woodpigeon. 



The way in which the eggs are placed in the nest 

 is most interesting and curious ; not in the ordinary 

 way as one would suppose by the female laying 

 them in the nest, but by laying them elsewhere and 

 carrying them up in her beak and thus depositing 

 them. The eggs vary a good deal in colour, from 

 greenish to reddish-grey, spotted and blotched with 

 darker shades of colour, and sometimes resemble 

 those of the foster-mother. 



Mr. W. H. Hudson says in regard to these nesting- 

 particulars, " As a rule only one egg is laid in a nest 

 and a few days after the eggs are hatched the young 

 Cuckoo gets rid of his foster-brothers by getting 

 them on to his back, which is broad and hollow, and 

 throwing them over the side of the nest. If any 

 unhatched eggs remain he gets rid of them in the 



