222 Herr A. Miiller ou a Cuckoo 



continually extending their Avings over the back, and one of 

 them occasionally thrust his head and neck so far behind 

 him that he fell over. The bird which I was now observing, 

 on the other hand, kept quite quiet, with his head and neck 

 on the bottom of the nest. He did not even stir when I 

 touched him with my finger on the back, in which the cha- 

 racteristic depression found in very young Cuckoos was still 

 discernible, nor when I placed an egg or some similar sub- 

 stance on his back. I concluded therefore that the sitting 

 mother must have herself removed the addled eggs, and 

 not the young Cuckoo, as it is wont to do when in other 

 birds' nests. 



After this I returned again to my point of observation, 

 but did not succeed in seeing the young bird fed by the old 

 one, as I was disturbed by some people cutting grass in the 

 neighbourhood, and resolved to defer my further observations 

 until a quieter day. 



When I returned to the place on the morning of May 26th, 

 I had several times an opportunity of seeing the young 

 Cuckoo fed by the old one with what appeared to me to be 

 green caterpillars. On the same occasion the young nestling 

 was sat upon and warmed by the mother for a long while. 

 When I arrived at the spot I placed myself at my former 

 post of observation, and saw with my glasses the old bird 

 sitting on the nest. For twenty-two minutes I watched her 

 in tliis situation, when I was surprised to see her suddenly 

 rise from the ground at several paces distant from the nest 

 and flv away. I seized the opportunity of visiting the nest, 

 and found the young Cuckoo lying in the hollow with its 

 eyes nearly quite open. When I approached, it erected the 

 front part of its body, and opened its orange-coloured mouth, 

 uttering its fine piping cry. The space round the nest was 

 thoroughly cleared of excrement — a striking proof that the 

 mother Cuckoo possesses the ordinary instinct of nest-building 

 birds, that of removing the comparatively large feeces of the 

 young with its bill. About three minutes after I had got 

 back to my hiding-place I saw the old Cuckoo alight on an 

 open spot six or eight footsteps distant from the nest, after 



