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occasion, a Cuckoo was seen anxiously watching a pair of wagtails 
building their nest; this did not seem to go on so fast as was 
necessary, for the Cuckoo laid its egg before the nest was finished. 
The same observer saw one enter a wagtail’s nest, take an egg out, 
and leave its own in. Mr. Harper, of Norwich, shot a Cuckoo 
with an egg in its beak, searching on the ground for a nest to 
deposit it in. This bird had another egg in the ovarium, of the 
same size, but without the calcareous covering. 
Recently the apparent carelessness of the female Cuckoo for 
her young has found an apologist in a correspondent to ‘Science 
Gossip,” who declares he has repeatedly watched the mother 
occasionally visit the nest in which she laid an egg, and even 
the young Cuckoo, when hatched. 
All the eggs of the Cuckoo which I have found have been in 
nests of the meadow pipit (Anthus pratensis), although I have 
known eggs taken from the hedge accentor, robin, and wagtail’s 
nests ; and my brother once took one from the nest of the black- 
headed bunting. The egg is small in proportion to the size of 
the bird, being generally not much larger than that of its foster 
parent, its average length being from 10 to r1-r2ths of an inch, 
its greatest diameter from 8 to 9-12ths, its colour greyish white, or 
reddish white, speckled with ash grey or greyish brown. 
It is very certain that, in spite of the attention that has been 
paid to the Cuckoo by ornithologists, there are few of our native 
birds with which we are less acquainted. Mudie says: “Still, we 
may safely conclude that the absolvement of the Cuckoo from nest 
building and rearing young, which are the severest labours of other 
birds, is meant to answer, and does answer, some very important 
purpose in the economy of nature, and that purpose can be accom- 
plished only by employing in some other way that portion of time 
in the Cuckoo, which in other birds is devoted to nidification and 
nursing.” That is the grand point to be ascertained. It can be 
ascertained only by observation of the most careful nature; and 
till it is ascertained, the history of the Cuckoo—unquestionably 
the most curious bird that visits this island—must remain imperfect 
and mysterious. 
