Their Eggs and Nests. 135 



lead-colour and brown, on a whitish ground. — Fig. 1, 

 plate VL 



FAMILY III-CUCULID^. 



CUCKOO — {Cucuhis canorus). 



Gowk. — " Have you heard the Cuckoo 3'et ? " How 

 often that question is asked by one's friends or neigh- 

 bours in the country. Hearing the first Cuckoo and 

 seeing the first Sw^allow are ahvays events to true 

 lovers of country scenes and objects and sounds. But 

 what a strange instinct it is which forbids our Cuckoo 

 to build a nest, and instructs it to lay its ^gg — at least 

 to place it — in some other bird's nest, and that bird 

 usually not one-fifth its own size ! A Blackbird's nest 

 is sometimes selected to receive the deposit, but very 

 rarely compared with the Hedge Sparrow's, the 

 Lark's, the Meadow Pipit's, the Water Wagtail's, or the 

 Chaffinch's. How many eggs are laid by a single 

 Cuckoo in a season, is, I think, not ascertained. It is, 

 however, a very rare circumstance to find more than 

 one Cuckoo's ^g^ in any given nest, and then open to 

 great doubt if both were placed there by the same 

 Cuckoo. It has been a matter of dispute how the 

 egg is actually deposited in the nest selected; whether 

 " laid " in, or placed in — after being dropped on the 

 ground, suppose — by the bill or claws. I found one 

 in the Meadow Pipit's nest mentioned above (p. 101), 

 where the position and site of the nest were such as 

 to leave no doubt whatever in my mind that the ^^^ 



