ii8 ENGLISH BIRD LIFE 



ated with the eggs or callow nestlings of the bird 

 whose nest is invaded. At once he shows signs of 

 restlessness. He appears to examine, as it were, 

 his neighbours, pressing beneath them his bare 

 wing-blades as though to test their weight. By slow 

 degrees he works the egg or nestling higher, until 

 at length it rests in the curiously deep depression 

 which Nature has hollowed in his back. Then, 

 moving backwards, and clinging with his claws, 

 by a desperate effort he hoists his burden clear over 

 the nest side. 



Mr. Metcalfe's remarkable photograph shows the 

 Cuckoo two days old in the act of ejecting a young 

 Meadow-pipit. In this case there were two Cuckoo's 

 eggs in the nest, an unusual thing. It will be seen 

 that the interloper has already thrown out the 

 Pipit's egg and the Cuckoo's as well. The second 

 photograph shows a Cuckoo, five days old, resting 

 after the labour of evicting a callow Pipit and egg. 



