The Oologists Record, September i, 1922. 65 



' ' days after she had phmdered the first nest ! Exactly the same 

 " thing happened with the pair of Wagtails with the nest of young. 

 " The evening after she (the Cuckoo) had destroyed the nest of 

 " incubated eggs, she came over, went straight to the nest of young 

 " Wagtails, pulled them from the nest, and left them to die on the 

 " cold stones in which the nest was built. The Wagtails immediately 

 " commenced building, and had a completed nest with one egg in 

 " a week, only to receive the egg-of the Cuckoo at this stage." 



Mr. Scholey satisfied himself that " when the Cuckoo could 

 " squeeze herself into a Wagtail's nesting hole she would sit on the 

 " nest and lay her egg in normal fashion, but where she could not 

 " do this the egg was deposited by the bill." 



This particular Cuckoo took an extra e^g from a nest when she 

 wished the Wagtail to continue laying and postpone the commence- 

 ment of incubation, and thus have the nest ready for her eg^ at the 

 right time. " Once," says Mr. Scholey " the male ate an egg and 

 " removed another, which he swallowed, to a near bank in occupation 

 " of the female." 



Mr. Scholey contends that, "It is a fact that a female Cuckoo 

 " will dominate a certain territory, driving away any others that may 

 " require the territory for egg-laying purposes. On several occasions 

 " this female Cuckoo received visits from her mother who had used 

 " the same territory in previous years, and when these visits were 

 " made, there was a battle royal. The old mother did, in fact, outwit 

 " her on three occasions and deposit her egg in or near the quarry." 



Another interesting sidelight on this game of hide-and-seek : — • 

 " It was very noticeable towards the end of the season to see how 

 " completely the Wagtails were sick of the continued attentions of 

 " the Cuckoo. As soon as they commenced to build, the Cuckoo 

 " found the nests, with the result that the Wagtails left them and 

 " restarted to build. Two pairs of birds each made three attempts 

 " to nest before finally settling down, and then they received the 

 " eggs of the Cuckoo in spite of their endeavours to outwit her." 



The particular Cuckoo under Mr. Scholey 's observation this 

 year laid 14 eggs in the chalk quarry, and his work was so thorough 

 that we must beUeve, that he accounted for all of them. He had 

 made most of the nesting sites before the commencement of the 

 season, and these were provided with both entrance and exit, for a 

 Wagtail, he says, " loves a nesting site where it can enter and leave 

 " by separate holes, if necessary." 



