518 THE CUCKOO. 



the cuckoo to it." And as to rearing the young cuckoo he 

 says— 



"The cuckoo stays with us until the young are strong on the 

 wing. It is thought it takes no part in rearing the young. That 

 may be the case while the young are in the nest, but my belief is that after 

 the young leave the nest the heather linnet has nothing more to do with it, 

 and the old cuckoo begins the parental duties. I have often got a young 

 cuckoo nearly as large as the parent (they are long in taking wing), and 

 every time the old one made its appearance. If he did not, I had only to 

 make the young cry, when the old one (only one) came to the rescue." 



Tn this discussion another writer gives an instance of an old 

 cuckoo giving food to a hedge-sparrow to feed its young. He 

 said — 



" My bedroom window commands a view of a long row of bee-hives, 

 sheltered by a hedge. One morning in spring I saw a cuckoo sitting on the 

 apex of one of the hives. A hedge-sparrow flew out of the hedge and 

 alighted close to it. The sparrow raised its bill to the cuckoo's and flew 

 back to the hedge, where a young cuckoo was shortly after taken from a 

 nest there. I often heard the noisy chuckle of the cuckoo flying to and fro 

 just outside my room, near my apiary. No doubt the mother cuckoo was 

 conveying food to help the foster mother in rearing her alien offspring. A 

 young cuckoo was hatched in a robin's nest built on a stump in another 

 part of my garden. It died before it was full fledged ; but while it was in 

 the nest a cuckoo haunted the beech, elm, and oak trees close by as if 

 watching over its cradle. I am convinced the cuckoo takes an interest in 

 the nest where she placed her egg, knowing its little foster parents will 

 require help for their large nestling. And as to the cuckoo being 

 gregarious, I have seen upwards of twenty in our field feeding on the cater- 

 pillars of the burnet moth." 



A curious instance was given in the Field of a cuckoo depositing 

 its egg in the nest of a chimney swallow built on a beam close 

 under the insides of a garden shed, so situated that the cuckoo 

 could not possibly have laid it there, but must have carried it 

 after being laid. It was hatched before the swallow's eggs, 

 which were at once ejected. The same writer says — 



" Another young cuckoo in a pied wagtail's nest within five yards of my 

 house died when a week old." 



In a note on page 394, vol. II., of the fourth edition, Yarrel 

 mentions 78 different species of birds in whose nests the cuckoo 

 puts her eggs. So she is not limited in her choice of dupes. 

 This quite corroborates what I have said about the cuckoo 

 placing its egg in the nest by the mouth. The " noisy chuckle" 

 is different from the note of the male — more like the gurgling 

 of water from a bottle — like the cry of the goatsucker, which 

 bird it resembles. A young cuckoo was got in a meadow 

 pipit's nest at Priormuir, nearly fledged, so large that it almost 



