182 CUCULID.E. 



Meadow Pipit ; these nests being rather numerous, and not 

 very difficult to find. Two eggs of the Cuckoo have been oc- 

 casionally found in one nest ; but it is the prevailing opinion 

 that the second egg is deposited by a second Cuckoo, and 

 that one Cuckoo does not go a second time to the same nest 

 to lay an egg. Mr. Hoy, Mr. Salmon, and other good ob- 

 servers, bear testimony to the fact of the adult Cuckoo occa- 

 sionally destroying one or more of the eggs of the nest in 

 which she deposits her own. But the young Cuckoo when 

 hatched is almost always found alone in the nest, without any 

 eggs or young birds, whatever may happen to be the nest 

 in which it has been hatched, the foster parent birds also 

 attending to its wants with the greatest assiduity ; and in 

 order to ascertain the cause of this apparent preference to the 

 exclusion of their own offspring. Dr. Jenner, at the request 

 of John Hunter, made a series of observations and experi- 

 ments to illustrate the natural history of the Cuckoo, the 

 details of which were published in the Transactions of the 

 Royal Society for the year 1788. The results of Dr. Jen- 

 ner's observations may be briefly stated as follows : — 



The small birds in the nests of Avhich the Cuckoo's egg is 

 most frequently found, take four or five days in laying their 

 eggs. During this time, — generally after one or two eggs 

 have been laid, — the Cuckoo contrives to deposit her egg, 

 leaving the future care of it to the owner of the nest. When 

 the bird has sat her usual time, and disengaged the young 

 Cuckoo and some of her own offspring from the shell, the 

 young Cuckoo being commonly hatched first, her own young 

 ones, and any of her eggs that remain unhatched, are soon 

 turned out, the young Cuckoo remaining possessor of the 

 nest, and the sole object of her care. The young birds are 

 not previously killed, nor are the eggs demolished, but all are 

 left to perish together, either entangled about the bush which 

 contains the nest, or lying on the ground under it. The 



