CUCKOO. 119 
ery, a long-drawn chiz-chiz-chiz, which is continued on 
the approach of danger in spite of the alarm-notes of 
the Pipits. When the Pipits have gained confidence 
they recommence to feed the Cuckoo, which awaits 
their advent with depressed body, quivering wings, and 
excited cries. After receiving the food the young bird 
invariably makes a vicious snap at the Pipit, which 
warily retreats a few inches and rests a moment, before 
flying off again for further supplies. Although the 
Cuckoo fears a human being and takes flight upon 
his near approach, its fear appears to be instinctive, 
and has obviously no relation to the alarm-notes of the 
Pipits, which would certainly influence the behaviour 
of their own young. 
In Cheshire the Cuckoo usually foists its eggs upon 
the Tree or Meadow Pipit. Less commonly the Robin, 
Hedge Sparrow, Pied Wagtail, Yellow Wagtail, Yellow 
Ammer, Sedge Warbler, or Whitethroat is imposed 
upon; and in 1861 a young Cuckoo is said to have 
been reared by a pair of House Sparrows at Northwich. 
A Cuckoo often victimises the same pair of birds year 
after year. In June 1886, Mr. F. Brownsword found a 
Robin’s nest containing four eggs of that bird and one 
of a Cuckoo in a lane at Prestbury. In the following 
year there was a young Cuckoo in a Robin’s nest in the 
same lane, not ten yards away; and on visiting the 
place again in 1889, Mr. Brownsword found four Robin’s 
and a Cuckoo’s egg in a nest about a hundred yards 
higher up the lane.? 
The Rev. C. Wolley-Dod has described an interesting 
case of Swallows rearing a Cuckoo and one of their 
own young in the same nest at Edge Hall in 18922 
1 J. Tomlinson, Field, vol. xviii. p. 67. 1861. 
* Naturalist, p. 176. 1894. 3 Ibis, ser. vi. vol. iv. p. 524. 1892. 
