yenner's Report. 45 



Or whether another cuckoo chanced to be in that 

 nest — a thing which, if ascertained, would have been 

 important. 



Mr. Howard Saunders positively asserts that the 

 same female sometimes deposits two and even three 

 eggs in one nest ; and that where there are two 

 cuckoos in the same nest the struggle for existence is 

 sometimes severe.''' 



Jenner's report is absolutely in favour of the theory 

 that the young cuckoos act towards each other pre- 

 cisely as they do towards the true occupants of the 

 nest. I do not, however, implicitly pin my faith to 

 Jenner, and wish — devoutly wish — for well verified 

 observations of others on this point to enable me and 

 others finally to accept or to reject what is implied in 

 the following passage : 



" Two cuckoos and one hedge-sparrow were hatched 

 in the same nest ; one hedge-sparrow's egg remained 

 unhatched. In a few hours a contest between the 

 cuckoos for the possession of the nest, which con- 

 tinued undetermined till the afternoon of the following 

 day, when one of them, which was somewhat superior 

 in size, turned out the other, together with the young 

 hedge sparrow and the unhatched egg. The combat- 

 ants," he says, " alternately appeared to have the ad- 

 vantage, as each carried the other several times nearly 

 to the top of the nest, and again sank down depressed 

 with the weight of its burden ; till, at length, after 

 various efforts, the strongest prevailed, and was after- 

 wards brought up by the hedge-sparrow." 



In the case of the two young cuckoos in a meadow- 

 pipit's nest, observed by Mr. John Craig, he thought 



* Manual of Birds, p. 278. 



