Mr. Emerson and Mr. Stevenson. 133 



the cuckoos there discovered that the reed-wren has 

 found them out, and will build over any alien eggs 

 deposited in their nests ? There must be some 

 reason, whether we can find it out or not, for the 

 aversion the Norfolk Broad district cuckoos have 

 come to have, apparently, to the reed-wren's nest. 

 Mr. Bidwell's exhibition list told certainly a very, 

 very different story, as to general procedure. 



Mr. Emerson's rule cannot, however, apply to any 

 portion of Norfolk, save strictly "the Broad-land;" 

 for we find Mr. J. H. Gurney writing: "It would 

 not be hard to find several marshy places in Norfolk 

 where cuckoos rather abound, and often lay their 

 eggs in reed-warblers' nests." And the general fact 

 is borne out by Mr. H. Stevenson, who, in his Birds 

 of Norfolk, gave an account of finding reed-warbler's 

 nests in bushes or shrubs (laurels, etc.) near to water. 



He wrote : 



" The most curious fact in connection with these 

 five reed-warblers' nests, built into shrubs or bushes 

 at the foot of a garden near the water's edge, was the 

 finding a cuckoo's Q^^g in three of them, and a young 

 cuckoo, of course per se, in the fourth."'' Occasionally, 

 but rarely, I have known a cuckoo's egg deposited in 

 the nest of this species when placed as usual among 

 the reeds ; but, in the above four instances, increased 

 size and width and easiness of access afforded, no 

 doubt, peculiar attractions." 



And again, at i, p. 387, Mr. Stevenson writes : 



" It is somewhat singular that the latter (the nest 

 of reed-warbler), although perhaps the most frequently 



*i, p. 117. 



