108 CUCKOO. 
young Cuckoo, assisted by the old Cuckoo, was witnessed by 
a most truthful and worthy ornithologist, a friend of mine, 
now no more. His animated countenance is even now before 
me, whilst relating minutely, and with intense interest, the 
singular and ridiculous disparity observable between the natural 
and the putative parent.’ He adds, ‘nor is this by any means 
a solitary instance of the natural affection of the Cuckoo.’ 
Mr. Blyth, too, says ‘t is certain that the maternal feelings 
of the Cuckoo are not quenched: astonishing as this may 
appear, Mr. John E. Gray, of the British Museum, informs 
me that he has himself seen a Cuckoo, day after day, visit 
the nest where one of its offspring was being reared, and 
which it finally enticed away from its foster-parents. I had 
previously heard of analogous cases.’ 
Again, in the ‘History of the Birds of Melbourne,’ in 
Derbyshire, given by J. J. Briggs, Esq., in the ‘Zoologist,’ 
he writes, ‘I believe that, although confiding her young to 
the care of other birds, the Cuckoo does not entirely forget 
them. I am strengthened in this opinion by a fact which 
fell under my notice in June, 1849. As I was walking over 
a particular part of this parish, with a dog, I was struck 
with the remarkable actions of a Cuckoo. It came flying 
about me within a hundred yards, seeming agitated and 
alarmed, and occasionally struck down at the dog in the same 
manner as the Lapwing does. It immediately occurred to 
me that the bird had young near, and that these actions were 
the result of maternal solicitude. I examined the neighbouring 
hedge-rows in order to find the nest, but without avail. The 
next day a neighbouring farmer told me that he had something 
to shew me, which proved to be a young Cuckoo in the nest 
of a Hedge-Sparrow, and the place where the nest was situated 
was but a very short distance from the spot where the old 
Cuckoo had attracted my attention in the manner described.’ 
I must here observe that the statement of Mr. Mc’ Intosh 
is strongly confirmed by the statement of the Rev. Mr. Stafford, 
communicated by Pennant to the Hon. Daines Barrington, 
and recorded by Derham in a manuscript paper on Instinct. 
Walking in Glossop Dale, in the Peak of Derbyshire, he 
disturbed a Cuckoo from a nest in which were two young 
ones, ‘and very frequently, for many days, beheld the old 
Cuckoo feed there her young ones.’ Probably only one of 
them was her own veritable offspring, and it is equally probable 
that she did not know which was which. Certain it is that 
