CUCKOO 2(37 



more egg, and had thea commenced to sit. This is 

 rather unusual, as the normal number of eggs is generally 

 five. The nest was situated in a hedge at the top of a 

 high bank, bordering a road which was little frequented." 



In Mr. E. J. Balston's notes he says that the flight 

 of the Cuckoo is at times very heavy and apparently 

 laborious, and that small birds will attack a Cuckoo in 

 a tree, and drive it away, and that an immature bird was 

 shot in September, at Chart Sutton, by him. 



The Cuckoo was heard at 4.30 a.m. on April 12, 1902. 



In the report on the immigration of summer residents 

 in the spring of 1905 {BiiUetin of the B.O.C.), the dates 

 of the arrival of the Cuckoo are April 14 to 16, 1905, 

 and May 7 they appear to have mcreased. The long 

 severe weather of the spring of 1906 delayed the arrival 

 of all the summer visitants, and the Cuckoo was first 

 heard in the Orlestone district on April 17, and an egg 

 was found in a Robin's nest at Bilsington on May 18. 

 A young one was found in a hedge nearly opposite the 

 railway signal-box and crossing at Upper Ruckinge, on 

 July 6, 1906 ; it was reared in a Hedge-Sparrow's nest, 

 and was fully fledged when discovered. 



In the Fauna of the " Cedars,'' Lee, Kent, Mr. J. F. 

 Green says : " The Cuckoo still remains faithful, though 

 every spring we hear less of its welcome note, owing, no 

 doubt, to so many properties around being amassed for 

 building purposes. For years I had been trying to get 

 a clutch of Hedge-Sparrow's eggs containing a Cuckoo's 

 blue egg, and last year I succeeded. It is curious why a 

 Cuckoo's egg in a Redstart's nest is nearly always blue, 

 and yet hardly blue in a Hedge-Sparrow's, although Red- 

 start's and Hedge-Sparrow's eggs are almost identical." 



