A YOUNG CUCKOO 57 



A YOUNG CUCKOO 



( With some Remarks on the Theory of Assimilation) 



At Beaumaris, on the 22nd June, we came upon a 

 pair of anxious Meadow-pipits at a spot where 

 Rock-pipits might almost have been looked for. 



Where some elevated grass land abutted upon a 

 narrow, heavily shingled beech, successive land-slips 

 had formed a cliff-like declivity, upon the irregular 

 surface of which coarse grass and weeds such as 

 Meadow-pipits commonly build in, had found 

 lodgement. Beyond the narrow strip of shingle 

 thirty feet below was the open sea. 



We had that day been far afield with small success, 

 and were at the time returning home in the rain, so 

 that it was with no great interest that we stood to 

 watch the two Meadow-pipits, each bearing food in 

 its bill unusually large food for Meadow-pipits 

 and waited for them to descend to the nest evidently 

 placed somewhere on the slope below. 



Some kind power must have given us patience 

 beyond our mood, for when the male bird, after long 

 hesitating, at last visited the slope, I proposed that 

 we should just inspect the spot and continue our 

 journey. A minute later my companion called 

 "Here it is ! " and looking where he pointed " Great 

 heavens ! " I exclaimed ; " it's a Cuckoo ! " Saul and 

 his father's asses had found a modern application. 



