64 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE CUCKOO. 
ling to believe,” he adds, “that any bird as helpless as a young 
Cuckoo is, before its eyes are open, has the power, or even the incli- 
nation, to eject from the nest the young and eggs which it feels 
around it. Why should this feeble creature, so feeble that it cannot 
support itself upon its legs, wish to get rid of companions which in 
no respect incommode it, but which, on the contrary, add to its con- 
venience? For it cannot be denied that a single bird, when first 
hatched, is less comfortably situated than when it is accompanied by 
nest-mates, the softness of whose down has a tendency to maintain 
that equality of warmth which callow young require. As to the 
ejection of the eggs by the newly-hatched Cuckoo, it cannot be 
the fact, the physical powers of the bird being inadequate to the 
purpose.” It will be sufficient, among the numerous notices which, 
from time to time, have appeared in the natural history periodicals, 
being simple details of observations made without any ulterior ob- 
ject—that is to say, without design of substantiating or subverting 
any particular doctrine, to select and condense the following, as po- 
sitive and satisfactory. 
In the passage which I commence with quoting a supposition is 
involved, which, if well founded—that is, if it be true that the 
same individual Cuckoo is referred to—the ascertained fact would 
be fatal to a theory for which I have been contending. The cura- 
tor of the Botanic Garden at Bury St. Edmunds relates that, on 
July 17th, a friend informed him that he believed that a Cuckoo 
had laid eggs in two nests of Wagtails in his garden, as he had seen, 
early one June morning, a Cuckoo leave the ivy in which a Wagtail 
had just built ; and that on the following morning he had observed 
it to fly from a large crevice in a wall where he had lately found 
the second nest. He did not, however, take any notice of this at 
the time ; but, having that morning accidentally discovered one of 
them to contain a large young bird and five small eggs, he was in- 
duced to take a peep at the other, where he found two larger eggs, 
with three eggs of the Wagtails. There can be little doubt that 
these were the produce of as many Cuckoos. 
“On J uly 20th—that is, three days afterwards, when the Cuckoo 
was necessarily ai least so many days old—the two nests were vi- 
sited: that in the ivy is reported to have contained a fine young 
Cuckoo, and four young miserable-looking Wagtails, together with 
a rotten egg ; the Cuckoo occupying the centre of the nest, which 
was somewhat flatter (less cupped) than usual. On July 24th, or 
seven days from the first visit, the Cuckoo was found to be alone ; 
but on searching about one of the Wagtails was found alive by the 
