CUCKOO 263 



fed on hard eggs, butterflies, grasshoppers, &c. It now 

 fed itself, and never seemed to have enough food ; one 

 day it ate sixty-five butterflies (principally Meadow 

 Browns) and a whole hen's egg. It Hved till winter came 

 on, when it died, without any apparent cause. I obtained 

 one of the eggs in a Titlark's nest, and in another a 

 young Cuckoo, which quite filled the small nest and had 

 turned out the egg and young one of the Titlark." 



Mr. H. W. Hadfield, writing to the Zoologist, in 1857, 

 says : " Tonbridge, March 26, 1857 : Observed a Cuckoo 

 this afternoon flying low, so that in threading its way 

 through the hop-poles it passed so close to me that 

 I could plainly distinguish the varied and chequered 

 plumage of the back." In this instance it is curious that 

 the bird in the variegated plumage of the young bird 

 should have made its appearance in Kent at such an 

 early date. A strange instance of the " abundance of 

 young Cuckoos " at Deal is recorded by Mr. H. J. Hard- 

 ing, September 20, 1862: "A great number of young 

 Cuckoos are now being caught by the hand in and 

 about gardens in this neighbourhood (Deal). Some fly 

 into houses and sheds, and they are so abundant as to 

 be noticed by the residents. They are extremely tame, 

 and those which have passed through my hands are fat 

 and in good condition. I believe them all to be young 

 birds not yet able to take their flight." 



Mr, A. W. Crichton, writing on the Deposition of Eggs 

 hij the Cuckoo, in 1863, says : " An anecdote was lately 

 furnished me in corroboration of the above, while on a 

 recent visit to Dover, by Mr. C. Gordon, the able and 

 enterprising attendant at the Museum there. He clearly 

 remembers that a friend of his, thirty years ago, when 

 walking in the park at Waldershare, the seat of the Earl 



