120 CUCKOW 



company, may occasionally be seen for a month longer. This is 

 about as much as is apparent to most people of the life of the 

 Cuckow with us. Of its breeding comparatively few have any 

 personal experience. Yet there are those who know that diligent 

 search for and peering into the nests of several of our commonest 

 little birds — more especially the Pied Wagtail (Motacilla lugubris), 

 the Titlark (Anthus pratensis), the Eeed-Wren {Acrocephalus 

 streperus), and the Hedge -Sparrow (Accentor modularis) — ^vill be 

 rewarded by the discovery of the egg of the mysterious stranger 

 which has been surreptitiously introduced therein, and waiting 

 till this egg is hatched they may be witnesses (as was the famous 

 Jenner in the last century ^) of the murderous eviction of the 

 rightful tenants of the nest l^y the intruder, who, hoisting them 

 one after another on his broad back, heaves them over to die 

 neglected by their own parents, of whose solicitous care he thus 

 becomes the only object. In this manner he thrives, and, so long 

 as he remains in the country of his birth, his wants are anxiously 

 supplied by the victims of his mother's dupery. The actions of his 

 foster-parents become, when he is full grown, almost ludicrous, for 

 they often have to perch between his shoulders to place in his 

 gaping mouth the delicate morsels he is too indolent or too stupid 

 to take from their bill. Early in September he begins to shift for 

 himself, and then follows the elders of his kin to more southern 

 climes. 



Of the way in which it seems possible that this curious habit of 

 the Cuckow may have originated something will be found else- 

 where (Nidification). But in connexion with its successful prac- 

 tice a good deal yet remains to be determined, most of which, 

 however probable, is still to be proved. So much caution is used 

 by the hen Cuckow in choosing a nest in which to deposit her egg 

 that the act of insertion has been -but seldom witnessed. The nest 

 selected is moreover often so situated, or so built, that it would be 

 an absolute impossibility for a bird of her size to lay her egg 

 therein by sitting upon the fabric as birds commonly do ; and there 

 have been a few fortunate observers who have actually seen the 

 deposition of the egg upon the ground by the Cuckow, who, then 

 taking it in her bill, introduces it into the nest. Of these, so far at 

 least as this country is concerned, the earliest seem to be two 

 Scottish lads, sons of Mr. Tripeny, a farmer in Coxmuir, who 

 informed Weir, as recorded by Macgillivray (Brit. Birds, iii. pp. 

 130, 131), that they saw most part of the operation performed, 24th 

 June 1838. But perhaps the most positive evidence on the point 

 is that of Herr Adolf Miiller, a forester at Gladenbach in Darm- 



1 A wholly unjustifiable attempt has lately been made to impugn Jenner'a 

 accuracy. His observations as printed in the Philosophical Transactions for 1788 

 (pp. 227 et seqq.), have been corroborated by others in the most minute detail. 



