v^ 



76 Life History of Coiiniioii Cuckoo. 



thing towards forming a taste for seed or fruit or 

 berries, and in sheltered, protected corners, it is quite 

 possible that a very late young cuckoo, or a cuckoo 

 which had but imperfectly moulted the wing feathers 

 might pull through, following in the footsteps of our 

 own feathered residents. 



In this, indeed, it would be but following closely 

 the example of the meadow-pipit and some other 

 birds it favours for foster parents, which, with nice 

 adaptability, have recourse to seeds, berries and fruits 

 in winter. 



Even in the case of the accentor you have a bird 

 whose staple in summer and autumn is insects, but in 

 winter and spring it adopts an almost entirely seed or 

 berry diet. 



The observation of out-of-door people, like Mr. 

 Freer's forester, of young cuckoos " nigh upo' Christ- 

 mas " would be thus explained, and made, in fact, 

 consistent with a general principle, viz., that cuckoos 

 reared in nests of seed and berry eating birds, or, 

 indeed, of insect eaters, that become seed eaters in 

 winter might, more especially if imperfectly winged, 

 without any very rude shock to a former experience 

 in food, maintain themselves through the winter in 

 mild situations and in mild seasons. Of course, this 

 could not be the case with those bred of purely insecti- 

 vorous birds — the whole of the available life in that 

 line having been shut up. We read in the EcJio of 

 October 20, having missed the correspondence on 

 which it is based, the following : 



" Can the cuckoo be heard in October, as someone 

 at Bodington, in Dorsetshire, has recently claimed to 

 have heard it ? A correspondent suggests that the 



