COMMON CUCKOO. 



181 



eggs do not appear to be laid till the middle of May, and 

 Montasru found an eosr as late as the 26th of June. Mr. 

 Jesse mentions that a young Cuckoo which had just escaped 

 from a Wagtail's nest was taken in Hampton Court Park 

 on the 18th of August, 1832. The egg which produced 

 this young bird, was probably laid during the second week in 

 July ; and from the middle of May to the middle of July is 

 included, probably, the whole time during Avhich the female 

 Cuckoo produces eggs. These eggs, as it is well known, are 

 exceedingly small compared to the size of the bird. The 

 largest Cuckoo's egg obtained by Dr. Jenner, weighed but 

 fifty-five grains, the smallest only forty- three grains. Of four 

 specimens in my own collection the largest only measures 

 eleven lines and a half in length, and eight lines and a half in 

 breadth. This is the exact size of the egg of the Skylark, 

 yet the comparative size of the two birds is as four to one. 

 The egg of the Cuckoo, according to Mr. Selby, requires 

 fourteen days incubation, and the young are able to leave the 

 nest in three weeks, but require feeding afterwards. 



The egg of the Cuckoo, which is of a pale reddish grey 

 colour, has been found in the nests of the Hedge Accentor, 

 the Robin, the Redstart, Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, 

 Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Rock Pipit, Sky Lark, Yel- 

 low Bunting, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Linnet, and Blackbird, 

 in this country ; and on the European continent, M. Tem- 

 minck says, it has also been found in the nests of the Thrush 

 and the Red-backed Shrike. From the circumstance of a 

 pair of Red-backed Shrikes having been seen feeding a young 

 Cuckoo, as recorded by Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear in 

 their Catalogue of the Birds of Norfolk and Suffolk, it is 

 probable that the Cuckoo sometimes deposits its egg in the 

 nest of the Red-backed Shrike in this country ; but the 

 nests in which the Cuckoo's eggs are most frequently found, 

 are those of the Hedge Warbler, the Pied Wagtail, and the 



