862 BRITISH BIRDS. 



though they were promptly ejected, I have no record of 

 the time which elapsed between the hatching- of the 

 Cuckoo and the eviction of the rightful occupants of the 

 nest. And this because I did not personall}^ make the 

 acquaintance of this Cuckoo till it was thirteen days old. 

 At that age its most striking featro-e w^as an enormous 

 abdomen, though scarcely less conspicuous was its 

 covering of bristl}", budding, feathers, which gave it 

 the api^earance rather of a lizard than a bird. 



It was daily v»'eighed and measured to record its rate 

 of growth, and photographed to scale ever}' second day. 

 The marks below the bird in the photographs indicate 

 inch and half-inch measurements, and constitute a scale 

 of comparison (see Plate VII.). The weights and measure- 

 ments are i-ecorded below, and give quite astonishing- 

 results. 



It will be seen that at hrst the bird grew comparatively 

 slovN'ly in length,* but from the nineteenth to the twenty- 

 iirst day of its existence it increased to the extent of one 

 inch a day. This is accounted for by the extremely rapid 

 growth of the tail-feathers, which took j)lace at this 

 period. The average increase in length works out at over 

 half-an-inch a da}'. In comparing- these with a set of 

 similar observations on the American " Nighthawk," I 

 find the increase to be exactly doublet 



* The length is the distance from the tip of the beak to the end of 

 the tail. 



t Cf. Herrick, " The Home Life of Wild Birds," p. 81. 



