Hutching its own Eyys. 221 



reddisli-brown spots, and was remarkable as being- tbickly 

 spotted at the smaller end instead of the larger. It was not 

 quite so large as a Chaffinch's egg. As I have already stated, 

 the nest was on a patch of bare ground a foot or more in 

 diameter, surrounded by grass and broom-buslies. 



After this examination I quickly withdrew to a rather more 

 elevated position in the underwood of the beech-forest. 

 From this spot, Avith my field-glasses, which I had luckily 

 brought with me, I could survey the ground below me quite 

 clearly. Within six minutes the Cuckoo came back, and 

 after flitting around for some time, alighted near the 

 nesting-place, and proceeded with a characteristic waddle on 

 to the nest. For more than an hour and a half I kept the 

 spot in view. During all this time the Cuckoo sat quiet on 

 the nest, so that there could be no further doubt in my mind 

 that it was sitting on its own eggs. 



Until the 25tli May I left the Cuckoo to sit undisturbed. 

 On the morning of that day I visited the spot again, and, on 

 the bird flying oft', found, to my great joy, a young Cuckoo 

 in the nest. Judging from my observations of young Cuckoos, 

 it seemed to have been hatched about 5 or 6 days, for the 

 shafts of the quills showed on the wings, traces of feathers 

 were visible on the shoulders, and the eyes had begun to 

 open. On one side of the nest I found the reddish-brown 

 and the small egg. The first was crushed in and appeared 

 to be rotten ; the second was uninjured, but on attempting 

 to blow it subsequently, 1 found that it was unfertilized, 

 and only contained a partly dried-up and wasted yolk. 

 No doubt, like the injured one, it was an egg dropped during 

 the time of sitting, and not fully developed nor fecundated, 

 as was apparent from its inferior size, very thin shell, and 

 small contents. 



In the meanwhile the sitting bird kept circling around me, 

 flying low, at short intervals, a proof that she had great 

 anxiety for her young one. My experiments witli this young 

 Cuckoo led me to quite a diff'erent result from that which I 

 had previously formed from the behaviour of two others in 

 the nest of a Redbreast. The latter \vere always restless, 



