^°'i i^^ 1 From Magazines, S-c IQQ 



liunii'd out ol bed. ami louiul llir hiid |ht<-1ic(1 on thr top of a 

 [KU-^^ola :-^ 



" At that moment my eye was attracted to a fluttering and 

 struggling ot wings just where some honeysuckle has grown up 

 one of the oak uprights, and almost underneath where the Cuckoo 

 was perched. Seizing my field-glasses, I was greatly thrilled to 

 find it was a female Cuckoo, which was hanging on to the squared 

 side of the timber, partly supporting herself by the growth of 

 honeysuckle, and inserting her head into a smallish aperture in 

 the wood, probably one cut out originally for the end of a trans- 

 verse beam, when these old timbers formed part of the roof of 

 a barn. She remained like that for at least six or eight minutes, 

 constantly popping her head into and out of the hole. Once a 

 male Chafifinch swooped at her, backwards and forwards, uttering 

 a ' pink-pink ' of alarm or indignation, and the Cuckoo, still 

 hanging on to the upright beam and still fluttering her wings, 

 turned up her head at the Chaliinch and opened her mouth so that 

 I could plainly see her orange gape. Then she returned to her 

 business, popping her head into the hole again, as if she was 

 either eating or arranging something. At last she flew off with 

 clucking notes, and was immediately followed by the male. I 

 heard his passionate ' Cuck-cuckoo, cuck-cuckoo ' dying away as 

 as he disappeared round the corner of the house. Then I hurriedly 

 dressed, took a light ladder, propped it up against the pergola, 

 and peered in. A Pied Wagtail's nest with two eggs, and a 

 Cuckoo's ! all most neatly arranged. She must, after depositing 

 the egg from her mouth in the nest, have been busily arranging 

 things so that all should look well on the Wagtail's return. Of the 

 latter I saw nothing. It was curious that a Chafiinch should have 

 taken up the cudgels. It was an uncommon scene, which more 

 than repaid one for being awoken at 5.30 a.m. . . . 



" What doubles the interest of this episode of a May morning 

 is that the male Cuckoo was quite evidently excited about it, 

 although such a thing has before now been observed. Whether 

 the female Cuckoo had just arrived with her mate, I don't know. 

 I am inclined to think so, for even as I saw her she was a long 

 time at the nest, which, I may add, is 8 feet from the ground. 

 And then people talk of the instinct of the lower creatures as 

 something that compels them to act, without possessing reasoning 

 power ! In the first place, the Cuckoo would have to watch the 

 Water-Wagtails, for I cannot suppose she would search in places 

 where she would have to chng on with evident difficulty in 

 obtaining a foothold, unless she was sure there was a proper 

 receptacle for her egg. And on seeing the Wagtails building she 

 would continue to watch. No human knew of the nest, although 

 I for one constantly walked past it, and constantly saw the 

 Wagtails in its near vicinity. Indeed. I had gone so far as to 

 wonder where they were building, for last year they reared three 

 broods in a hole in an old stone wall, and this year the hole was 

 vacant. Moreover, the Cuckoo waits until one or two eggs are 



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