24 -^(A History of Common Cuckoo. 



cuckoo, is, however, completely dissipated by well 

 verified facts and observations, some of which we 

 shall, in a moment, present ; young birds found lying 

 — having been turned out of the nests either by the 

 young cuckoo or some other bird — are in most cases 

 perfectly well nourished and with their crops full, as 

 we ourselves have more than once found them. 

 — hedge-sparrows, meadow-pipits, and wagtails, etc. 

 An observed fact or series of facts on our own part 

 which also meets the proposition that the true young 

 are first starved, and then over-laid by the quick- 

 growing young cuckoo, as Pennant fancied. 



This matter just shows how little reliance is to be 

 placed upon so-called experts often, very often, when 

 they go beyond their proper office of observing, and 

 faithfully recording their observations. John Gould 

 was, like many others, a splendid practical field 

 ornithologist, or classifier, but he was no thinker, and 

 was mostly either very weak or very far wrong when 

 he attempted anything outside his proper province. 

 I question whether a pair of small birds would be able 

 to turn out a young bird in the way he supposes — at 

 all events, in some circumstances and from some 

 nests — in fact, the power of the young cuckoo to do 

 so is in itself more likely by far from its quick growth 

 than the other. 



W'e are told by a more recent writer that Mr. 

 Gould remained sceptical about the young cuckoos 

 ejecting the true young from the nest, and was con- 

 verted by the evidence of Mrs. Blackburn and Mr. 

 Hancock ; and in the introduction to his first work 

 published afterwards he frankly admitted it, though 

 Mr. J. E. Harting could not miss the chance in Our 



