CUCKOO. 289 



noticed an influx of these birds, which haunted the sandhills 

 for a day or two and then dispersed inland ; and they have 

 been observed assembling at Flamborough in autumn prior 

 to departure. The most important references to the autumn 

 migration are : — 



" 1844. 28th August. Fifteen observed, apparently 

 migrating " {Zool. 1845, p. 821). 



" 1881. Many passed Spurn last fortnight in September " 

 (Third Migration Report). 



" 1893. June 25-26th. Twenty seen near Kilnsea " 

 (Cordeaux MS.). 



The method by which the young Cuckoo ejects the young 

 of its fosterers has been observed by Mr. Harper of Scar- 

 borough {Zool. 1886, p. 245), and if proof were required of the 

 old Cuckoo " sucking little birds' eggs to make her voice 

 clear," a Yorkshire instance may be quoted from Goathland, 

 where, in June 1901, a female bird was observed hunting the 

 moor near a Titlark's nest containing one egg ; a watch was 

 kept on its movements ; it was seen to hover in the vicinity 

 for some time, to alight near the nest, and then fly away 

 carrying some small object in its bill ; on inspection of the 

 nest a different egg to what it had contained was found, 

 and a search near a hedge where the Cuckoo had flown revealed 

 the broken pieces of shell of the Titlark's egg. The Cuckoo 

 had carried off the Titlark's and substituted its own egg. 

 The late J. Tennant of Boston Spa mentioned that he once 

 saw a female Cuckoo killed, which had in its bill its own 

 broken egg that it was apparently going to place in a Hedge 

 Sparrow's nest near. A curious depository for a Cuckoo's 

 egg was in a Wagtail's nest, built in a waggon of coals standing 

 at York station, when the coal trade was greatly depressed. 

 The egg was hatched and the young bird reared (York 

 Herald, 12th July 1876). Amongst the fosterer-Cuckoos 

 found in Yorkshire are : — Meadow Pipit, Tree Pipit, Rock 

 Pipit, Redstart, Whinchat, Whitethroat, Garden Warbler, 

 Sedge Warbler, Reed Warbler (AUis), Hedge Accentor, Pied 

 Wagtail, Yellow Wagtail, Yellow Bunting, Reed Bunting, 

 Greenfinch, Twite (H. B. Booth MS.), Redbreast, Skylark, Song 



VOL. I. u 



