CUCKOW. 397 



published* an artistic sketch, taken from life, of the callow, 

 blind, but far from helpless young Cuckow in the act of 

 heaving one of its foster-brethren — a Titlark some days older 

 than itself — over the side of the nest.-j- 



It not unfrequently happens that two Cuckows' eggs | are 

 deposited (presumably by different birds) in the same nest. 

 Of one such instance that came under Jenner's observa- 

 tion he writes: — "June 27, 1787. Two Cuckoos and a 

 Hedge-sparrow were hatched in the same nest this morning ; 

 one Hedge-sparrow's egg remained unhatched. In a few 

 hours after, a contest began between the Cuckoos for the 

 possession of the nest, which continued undetermined till 

 the next afternoon ; when one of them, which was somewhat 

 superior in size, turned out the other, together with the 

 young Hedge-sparrow and the unhatched egg. This con- 

 test was very remarkable. The combatants alternately 

 appeared to have the advantage, as each carried the other 

 several times nearly to the top of the nest, and then sunk 

 down again, oppressed by the weight of its burthen ; till at 

 length, after various efforts, the strongest prevailed, and was 

 afterwards brought up by the Hedge-sparrows." On the 

 other hand it must be mentioned that in a case recorded by 



"He never saw what he relates." Mr. Gould, though once (B. Eur. pt. xix.) 

 admitting the possibility of the young Cuckow's shouldering out its companions, 

 in 1864 (B. Gr. Brit. pt. v.) held the old belief that they were ejected by 

 their own parents ; but the evidence of Mrs. Blackburn, being suitably brought 

 to his notice, induced him to confess (07). cit. Introd.) that his former opinion 

 was erroneous. 



* 'The Pipits, illustrated by J. H. B.' [Mrs. Blackburn] pi. 11 (Glasgow : 1872). 

 The sketch was adapted to form one of Mr. Gould's plates (B. Gr. Brit. pt. xxv.), 

 but not, it would seem (Nature, ix. p. 123), too accurately, and was reproduced 

 by him (op. cit. Introd.) as well as by Mr. Harting (Summer Migrants, p. 239). 



■f" The passion for evicting the tenants of a nest is shewn by an observation of 

 Herr Brucklacher (Zool. Garten, 1868, p. 154), who, having set at opposite ends 

 of a window-sill a young Cuckow and a nest full of young Bull6nches, saw the 

 former after some time crawl straight across to the latter, climb up the nest, 

 and possess himself of it, though the resistance of its occupants made him take 

 a couple of hours to j)erform the feat. 



+ Mr. E. C. Moor records (Zool. s.s. p. 2344) the successive taking of three 

 Cuckow's eggs from the same Wagtail's nest, used three times in the same 

 season. These he supposes to have been laid by the same Cuckow, but it does 

 not seem that two eggs were ever in the nest simultaneously. 



