AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 247 



flight to a Hawk were the true cause, we should expect 

 to see the Nightjar exposed to the same annoyance. 

 The growth of the young Cuckoo is very rapid, and 

 it generally leaves the nest within a fortnight of 

 being hatched. We have frequently been startled 

 on looking into a Eeed- Warbler's nest by the gaping 

 yellow mouth of one of these youngsters, who com- 

 pletely filled and sometimes overlapped his little 

 domicile, and snapped savagely at our fingers. The 

 assiduity with which the young Cuckoo is fed and 

 attended by his foster-parents after leaving the nest 

 is probably well known to most of our readers, and 

 has been previously alluded to by us when treating 

 of the Pied Wagtail in these Notes. As far as we 

 have been able to ascertain, the principal food 

 brought by the deluded guardians consists of their 

 ow^n natural prey, gnats, small flies, and beetles ; but 

 as soon as the Cuckoo can take care of itself hairy 

 caterpillars are undoubtedly its favourite morsels. 

 The young Cuckoo, on leaving the nest, generally 

 sits on a bare bough on some open spot near its 

 birthplace, continually uttering a shrill and tedious 

 cry. The old Cuckoos are silent after the middle of 

 June, and leave us altogether in July, the young 

 birds generally following them about the end of 

 August ; but we have often met with a lingerer in 

 the early part of September ; and in 1882 a young 

 Cuckoo, presumably hatched in the immediate 

 neighbourhood, was constantly seen near the boat- 

 house at Lilford till the 25th of that month. We 

 have had several Cuckoos in confinement, and in 

 one instance succeeded in keeping one of these birds 

 through two winters ; this individual, after about 

 three months of cage-life, began to pick up his own 



