LETTER XXV. 179 



like a Cuckoo. They say that Cuckoos never hatch their own 

 eggs, or I could 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 some time, and was perfectly 

 satisfied it w r as a Cuckoo.' The reverend narrator goes on to 

 relate very minute particulars of the pains he took to watch the 

 progress of the incubation. There were three eggs laid among 

 the coal slack, in a nest just scratched out like the hollows in 

 which Plovers deposit their eggs. After some days two young 

 Cuckoos appeared. Mr Wilmot and several of his friends con- 

 stantly watched the nest until one was fully fledged. . . . 

 Aristotle says the Cuckoo sometimes builds her nest on broken 

 rocks and on high mountains, but adds that she generally possesses 

 herself of the nests of other birds." 



XXV. 



Littlehampton, Sussex, 7 th October 1866. 



I CAN never hope again to have the opportunities I had while 

 at Iona of personally watching the birds of the West Coast at 

 all seasons of the year. My later visits have been temporary 

 ones, generally in the summer or early autumn, which are 

 the least interesting for that purpose. 1 My late residence 

 at Lochgilphead, though in the same county and admitting 



1 We cannot unhesitatingly endorse this opinion of our author from a natur- 

 alist's point of view ; and we humbly think that all the seasons have their special 

 interest ; so much so, that one can hardly be compared with another, when there 

 is aught at all to observe, as regards their bird-life.— Ed. 



