28 Life History of Common Cuckoo. 



*' We proceeded to the nest," says Mr. Craig, 

 " and placed the young yellow-hammer I had found 

 and taken with me in it, beside the young cuckoo. 

 After a few minutes delay, the cuckoo hoisted the 

 yellow-hammer on its back and climbed up the side 

 of the nest backwards and shot the bird over the nest. 

 We put the bird into the nest again when the cuckoo 

 repeated the operation. Six snapshots were taken " 

 ([wo of which, by the great kindness of Mrs. Comyns- 

 Lewer, and Mr. Craig and Mr. J. Peat Millar we are 

 enabled to give) " with the young cuckoo on the top of 

 the nest ejecting a yellow-hammer from a meadow- 

 pipit's nest, one of them was taken with the yellow- 

 hammer lying outside the nest, the other three were 

 taken in difterent stages in the nest. So far as I am 

 aware, these are the first snap-shots that have been 

 taken of a young cuckoo ejecting a young bird from 

 the nest. The cuckoo was about five days old, and 

 the yellow-hammer about three or four at the time 

 that the snap-shots were taken. 



" On June 15, 1899, I saw another pipit's nest, con- 

 taining a cuckoo's egg and four pipits' eggs. I broke 

 one of the latter's eggs, but the egg had only been sat 

 upon a day or two. I again visited the nest on June 

 14th, but none of the eggs were hatched. I again 

 visited the nest the following day, when the cuckoo 

 had hatched, and one of the nest-owner's eggs was 

 lying outside the nest. I put the egg back into the 

 nest again. The cuckoo was not twenty-four hours 

 old. I again visited the nest on the following day 

 along with Mr. J. Peat Millar, when we found the 

 cuckoo the sole occupant, and the three pipits' eggs 

 lying outside the nest. We placed one of the eggs in 



