^ 



424 'PICARIAN' BIRDS 



or eggs, instead of leaving the task to her offspring, but this requires 

 confirmation. If two cuckoos are hatphed in the same nest, the weaker 

 is ejected by the stronger. Sometimes a cuckoo's egg may be laid in 

 a nest containing eggs ripe for hatching, and in such cases the young 

 cuckoo may be unable to eject his foster-brethren ; and if the nest be 

 situated in a hole such ejection may be impossible, so that in both such 

 cases the rightful nestlings and the intruder may be brought up together. 

 The following details of the history of a }-oung cuckoo were 

 recorded by an observer in Norfolk. On May 22, 1904, was found a 

 hedge-sparrow's nest containing three eggs laid by the owner, and one 

 deposited by a cuckoo. The cuckoo's egg was of the ordinary brown 

 type, presenting no resemblance to the hedge-sparrow's eggs. On 



June 2 the young cuckoo and 



two hedge-sparrows were hatched, 



the third young hedge-sparrow, 



which had been hatched earlier, 



having previously disappeared. 



The next day the two nestling 



hedge-sparrows were lying dead 



outside the nest. When one 



was replaced, no attempt was 



made to eject it by the cuckoo. 



The same result happened when 



a young wagtail was put into the nest ; but when this was replaced 



by a young wren, the latter was ejected under the eyes of the 



observer in the usual manner. On June 22 the \-oung cuckoo left 



the nest. 



The following incident, which occurred in Essex in 1905, of a 

 cuckoo placing her egg in a conservatory is of interest. For some 

 days a wagtail's nest had been observed in a conservatory leading out 

 of a drawing-room, when one day a half-grown cuckoo fluttered out ; 

 it was caught and replaced in the nest, where its wants were attended 

 to by its foster-parents. The presence of the cuckoo in this nest 

 necessitated considerable courage on the part of the hen bird, as the 

 nest was within a foot of an inside door. Nor is it easy to realise 

 how the cuckoo discovered the nest, as the wagtail's access was at all 

 times through an open sk}'light. 



To show that cuckoos of certain other species have similar breeding- 

 habits reference may be made to a photograph reproduced in the March 

 number of the Victorian Naturalist for 1905. which shows a nestling 

 bronze-cuckoo in the act of ejecting the rightful occupant of the nest 



YOLNG CUCKOO. 



