PECULIAR INTERRELATIONS 131 



to prove suitable victims is evident from the position of many 

 of the nests which are found to contain young Cuckoos. As a 

 case in point mention may be made of an instance where a 

 young Cuckoo was found in the nest of a Pied Wagtail which 

 had built in a flower-pot containing a plant trained over an 

 intricate trellis-work, leaving but small interspaces just big 

 enough to allow the passage of so small a bird, and this flower- 

 pot, it is to be noted, was placed in a greenhouse. Thus then 

 the Cuckoo must have noticed the Wagtails collecting nesting 

 materials, and have watched their destination. Then, having 

 deposited its egg on the ground somewhere in the vicinity, it 

 must have picked it up and gone straight to the flower-pot, 

 thrust in its head and dropped the egg into the nest. 



The Common Cuckoo (Cucu/us canorus) is not the only 

 species of the Cuckoo tribe which is addicted to parasitism. 

 Thus, the great Spotted Cuckoo {^Coccystes glandarius) — a rare 

 visitor to Great Britain, but common in Southern Spain and 

 North Africa — foists its eggs upon various species of the Crow 

 tribe. In Spain, its choice falls upon the Magpie, in Egypt the 

 Hooded Crow, and in Algeria the Moorish Magpie. In this 

 restriction to birds of the Crow tribe this Cuckoo differs re- 

 markably from the Common Cuckoo, which levies service on a 

 large number of species of widely different families. It is 

 further peculiar in that at least two eggs are laid in each nest — 

 sometimes as many as four — while the newly hatched birds live 

 amicably with the rightful occupants of the nest. So closely, 

 it may be remarked, do the eggs of this Cuckoo resemble those 

 of the Crows in whose nests they are placed, that even oologists 

 have been deceived by the resemblance. 



Many other species of Cuckoos have also become parasitic, 

 and so far as the evidence goes, it would appear that, like the 

 Great Spotted Cuckoo, the young have not developed the re- 

 markable, one might almost say criminal, instincts displayed by 

 the Common Cuckoo. The Cuckoos of the Genus Eudyuai/iys 

 are parasitic. Thus the Koel of Palawan {E. orientalis) victim- 

 ises a Mynah {Eiiiabes jnvanicus), while the Indian Koel {E. 

 honorata) chooses Crows for this purpose. Similarly, the New 

 Caledonian Cuckoo {Cacconaiitis bronzinus) lays its eggs in the 

 nest of a Flycatcher {Pseudogerygoiie Jiaviiateralis). The case 

 of the Drongo Cuckoo {Surniculus lugubris) of India is still 



