reared in the same Nest. 525 



sort of ledge inside, between which and the roof is a wedge- 

 shaped cavity, convenient for keeping trowels, hammers, &c,, 

 which are held in the angle of the Avedge. Amongst other 

 things, the gardener had put there a thin bit of board, just 

 where a rafter comes down and crosses the horizontal beam. 

 On this board^ projecting and resting on one side against 

 the rafter, the Swallows had built their nest, two-thirds of 

 which were blocked at the sides and back, and there was 

 access to it only by the concave channel of the corrugated 

 iron roof, which afforded a space of about two inches between 

 the nest and the roof for about one third of its circumference. 

 I do not think it would be possible for a Cuckoo to have got 

 into the nest to lay an egg ; how the young bird was intended 

 to get out when full-grown was another difficult problem. 

 However, there the young Cuckoo was, and I judged it to be 

 about a week old ; I took it out of the nest to examine it, 

 and it was lively and vigorous, its feathers beginning to grow. 

 On inquiry I found that about a week before this two 

 broken Swallow's eggs had been noticed beneath the nest. 

 I believe these were afterwards removed by the old Swallows, 

 because I found one of them dropped on the other side of the 

 wall against which the shed leans, and the gardener had not 

 touched the broken eggs ; as the Swallows continued to visit 

 the nest he had not thought anything of the incident. I also 

 learnt that about a month before the garden-boy had come 

 upon a Cuckoo sitting on a box in the shed. It flcAv away, 

 but two hours afterwards was there again. Later in 

 the day I felt in the nest again and discovered that 

 besides the young Cuckoo there were two young Swallows, 

 evidently hatched later, and apparently three or four days 

 younger. I watched for some time to see whether the 

 Cuckoo would make any attempt to eject his companions, 

 but he did not seem to notice them. The next morning 

 I took the nest down to examine it. There was only 

 one young Swallow, the other had disappeared ; I suspect it 

 had died and the old birds had carried it away, for I could 

 see no disposition at all in the Cuckoo to interfere with the 

 survivor, which seemed weakly and starved. 



SER. VI. — VOL. IV. 2 N 



