456 Observations on the Cuckoo. 
would contain a cuckoo’s egg, and I was not 
disappointed. I may further remark, in 
confirmation of this discovery, which, by ex- 
hibiting a curious, and hitherto unnoticed, 
instinctive propensity of this bird, forms an 
interesting addition to its history, that enc- 
koos almost invariably deposit their eggs in 
the nests of. other birds, as soon as those 
birds begin to lay; not unfrequently indeed, 
immediately after the exclusion of the first 
egg; and Mr. Baker informs me, that he 
saw the hen of that pair of cuckoos which 
he observed so closely last spring, fly directly 
to a titlark’s nest, as to a place with which 
she was perfectly familiar, though he had 
never seen her there before, and after raising 
her head, and looking round, as if to ascer- 
tain whether she was noticed, went and de- 
posited her egg in the nest, before the larks 
had begun to lay. From these circumstances, 
and from the direct evidence of my own 
senses, I consider this fact then as satisfac- 
torily established, and it is of importance, in 
as much as it completely obviates a difficulty 
which has greatly perplexed modern ornitho- 
logists, and which chiefly induced Colonel 
Montagu to form his extraordinary, but gra- 
tnitous opinion, respecting the power of the 
