120 On certain Peculiarities in the 
may be most convenient for her purpose. Into these nests it is 
not her habit to intrude herself, for the purpose of laying her egg, 
as all other birds do; indeed from her superior size in proportion 
to the nest, such a course would be generally impossible: but she 
lays her egg on the ground, and then she takes it in her beak,! 
and gently deposits it in the nest she has chosen. And that the 
Cuckoo does thus avail herself of her beak to place her eggs in 
nests which otherwise would have been inaccessible to her, is not 
only a@ priori established from those cases where no other means 
were possible, as in certain domed nests with entrance holes at 
the side only, or those which are laid in the holes of trees, as for 
instance those of the Wren, the Redstart and others: but we have 
a very interesting account, from a charcoal burner, in the forest of 
Thiiringer, who happened to be in his rude woodman’s hut in the 
forest, when a Cuckoo, (which he had long observed flying about 
in the neighbourhood) flew into the hut, not perceiving the owner, 
perched upon a bench near the entrance, laid an egg, then seized 
it in her beak, and placed it in a wren’s nest, which was built 
against the inner side of the hut, while the man looked on in 
amazement, and soon after related the “‘ wonder” to the German 
naturalist, who recorded the event. But I believe this to be her 
invariable method, whether the small nest of the foster parent be 
accessible to her or no: and then again this habit of taking the egg 
in her beak, and so depositing it in the chosen nest, considered in 
conjunction with the similarity of her egg to that of several 
species of small birds as detailed farther on, will readily account 
for the frequent assertion on the part of eye-witnesses of the 
Cuckoo eating the eggs of small birds, which they triumphantly 
declare they have themselves seen between the mandibles of that 
bird’s beak.? 
It is not until after an interval of several days that the Cuckoo 
lays another egg in the same manner, and then deposits it in 

1 Zoologist, 3145, 7757, 7935, 8165. Hewitson’s Eggs of British Birds, vol. i., 
p- 205. Temminck’s Manual d’ Ornithologie, vol. i., p. 384. Rennie’s Archi- 
tecture of Birds, p. 378. 
* Naturalist for 1851, p. 162, for 1852, pp, 33—233. 
