58 A YOUNG CUCKOO 



The nest, placed in a hollow on the slope beneath 

 a natural arch of dried grass, was screened by hanging 

 shreds of the latter, and through this curtain the 

 young Cuckoo from time to time struck suddenly, 

 withdrawing slowly, the unclosed bill still showing 

 red within as he withdrew. Among the grass just 

 before the nest lay three eggs of the Meadow-pipit, 

 more or less hard-set, but broken. 



Setting the hanging grass aside so as to disclose 

 the bird, I secured a picture of it and its surroundings, 

 untouched save in the particulars mentioned. 



I was familiar enough with the literature of the 

 Cuckoo to know that I might expect scant courtesy 

 from its young ; but I confess that my reception 

 by this bird surpassed anything I had anticipated. 

 I was used to the grown-up Cuckoo, with its 

 blue-grey back, mock hawk-stripings, but low, 

 smooth curves and gentle aspect, breasting the air 

 as a Missel- thrush breasts it; but I had not looked 

 for this bullet-headed, blear-eyed, red-mouthed, 

 "pen "-feathered, puff-chinned creature, already 

 furnished with all his hawk-like barrings on breast 

 and underwing and tail, besides having every one of 

 his ash-brown body-feathers conspicuously edged 

 with white. The combination of red, white, and 

 dark for a moment recalled the Barred Woodpecker, 

 but the bird's gestures at once banished the thought. 



These gestures are such as to have caused it to 

 be called fiendish, and if the word be used to denote 

 a disposition so gratuitously vicious and aggressive 

 as to suggest the promptings of some secret, 

 malignant principle, it is apt enough. Upon any 

 movement near the nest the feathers of the body, 



