320 CUCULID^E. 



particular locality. It shows no hostility towards birds of 

 another kind, and little affection for those of its own. If 

 two males meet in the course of their wandering they 

 frequently fight with intense animosity. I was once 

 witness of an encounter between two birds who chanced 

 to meet in mid-air. Without alighting they attacked 

 each other with fury, pecking at each other and changing 

 places just as one sees two barn-door cocks fight for the 

 supremacy of the dunghill Feathers flew in profusion, 

 and in their passion the angry birds heeded my presence so 

 little that they came almost within arm's length of me. 

 These single combats account for the belief formerly enter- 

 tained that the Cuckoo was the only sort of Hawk that 

 preyed on its own kind. It does not pair, and it is unusual 

 to see even a male and female together. It is however, 

 frequently accompanied by a small bird of another kind, 

 said to be, and I have no doubt correctly, a Meadow 

 Pipit. There does not appear to be any intimacy or any 

 hostility between the ill-matched pair. The larger bird 

 flies first, the lesser one as if spell-boulid follows it : if the 

 Cuckoo perches in a tree, the Pipit posts itself on another 

 hard by, or on another branch of the same; if the Cuckoo 

 alights on the ground, the Pipit is by its side. 



The Cuckoo hunts for its food both in trees and on the 

 ground. On its first arrival it lives principally on beetles, 

 but when caterpillars become abundant it prefers them, 

 especially the hairy sorts. In the months of May and 

 June, the female Cuckoo lays her eggs, (the number of 

 which is variously estimated from five to twelve,) choosing 

 a separate locality for each, and that invariably the nest 

 of some other bird. The nests in which the egg of a 

 Cuckoo has been found in this country are those of the 

 Hedge Sparrow, Robin, Redstart, Whitethroat, Willow 

 Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Wagtail, Pipit, Skylark, Yellow 

 Bunting, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Linnet, Blackbird and 

 Wren; the Pipit being the most frequent. In some of 



