120 CUCKOW 
company, may occasionally be seen for a month longer. This is 
about as much as is apparent to most people of the life of the 
Cuckow with us. Of its breeding comparatively few have any 
personal experience. Yet there are those who know that diligent 
search for and peering into the nests of several of our commonest 
little birds—more especially the Pied Wagtail (Jotacilla lugubris), 
the Titlark (Anthus pratensis), the Reed- Wren (Acrocephalus 
streperus), and the Hedge-Sparrow (Accentor modularis)—will be 
rewarded by the discovery of the egg of the mysterious stranger 
which has been surreptitiously introduced therein, and waiting 
till this egg is hatched they may be witnesses (as was the famous 
Jenner in the last century!) of the murderous eviction of the 
rightful tenants of the nest by the intruder, who, hoisting them 
one after another on his broad back, heaves them over to die 
neglected by their own parents, of whose solicitous care he thus 
becomes the only object. In this manner he thrives, and, so long 
as he remains in the country of his birth, his wants are anxiously 
supplied by the victims of his mother’s dupery. The actions of his 
foster-parents become, when he is full grown, almost ludicrous, for 
they often have to perch between his shoulders to place in his 
gaping mouth the delicate morsels he is too indolent or too stupid 
to take from their bill. Early in September he begins to shift for 
himself, and then follows the elders of his kin to more southern 
climes. 
Of the way in which it seems possible that this curious habit of 
the Cuckow may have originated something will be found else- 
where (NIDIFICATION). But in connexion with its successful prac- 
tice a good deal yet remains to be determined, most of which, 
however probable, is still to be proved. So much caution is used 
by the hen Cuckow in choosing a nest in which to deposit her egg 
that the act of insertion has been but seldom witnessed. The nest 
selected is moreover often so situated, or so built, that it would be 
an absolute impossibility for a bird of her size to lay her egg 
therein by sitting upon the fabric as birds commonly do; and there 
have been a few fortunate observers who have actually seen the 
deposition of the egg upon the ground by the Cuckow, who, then 
taking it in her bill, introduces it into the nest. Of these, so far at 
least as this country is concerned, the earliest seem to be two 
Scottish lads, sons of Mr. Tripeny, a farmer in Coxmuir, who 
informed Weir, as recorded by Macgillivray (Brit. Birds, iii. pp. 
130, 131), that they saw most part of the operation performed, 24th 
June 1838. But perhaps the most positive evidence on the point 
is that of Herr Adolf Miiller, a forester at Gladenbach in Darm- 
1 A wholly unjustifiable attempt has lately been made to impugn Jenner’s 
accuracy. His observations as printed in the Philosophical Transactions for 1788 
(pp. 227 et segqg.), have been corroborated by others in the most minute detail. 
