" Wonderful and Unaccountable.'" 21 



nest. About eleven o'clock the first young accentor 

 was put over the edge of the nest exactly as illus- 

 trated by Mrs. Blackburn. The mother was present, 

 but took no notice of the affair going on, but looked 

 on calmly. The second egg was pushed out at one 

 p.m., in the presence of myself. Miss Abbs, and my 

 sister, whom I had specially invited to come and see 

 the proceedings of the young cuckoo. The last and 

 fourth of the lot we left in the hands of the destroyer. 

 It was sitting almost on the back of the cuckoo, 

 which had had one try to put it over the edge of the 

 nest, but had failed. At half-past three when we 

 returned to examine the nest, the young cuckoo was 

 the sole occupant. 



" The first baby accentor which had been thrown 

 on to the edge of the nest was still alive, so we put it 

 into a white-throat's nest, which had four young ones 

 about a day old, and from all appearances it will be 

 properly attended to by its foster-parents. 



" The cuckoo's proceeding, as I saw it, is in my 

 opinion the most wonderful and unaccountable piece 

 of business that I ever witnessed in bird-life. . . . 



" These observations, though they may seem to be 

 a repetition of the accounts given by Dr. Jenner, 

 Montagu, Mrs. Blackburn, and other accurate obser- 

 vers, are nevertheless necessary in these days ; for, in 

 the minds of some ornithologists, it seems to be still 

 an undecided question — how the young cuckoo gets 

 the young of its foster-parents from the nest ! I 

 have before had an opportunity of ascertaining the 

 fact, and expressing my full belief in the accounts 

 given by Dr. Jenner, Col. Montagu and others, as 

 stated in my catalogue, (p. 26), but till last summer I 



