THE CUCKOO. 



TREE PIPIT ABOUT TO ALIGHT 

 ON YOUNG CUCKOO'S BACK 

 WITH FOOD. PHOTOGRAPHED 

 IN 55 OF A SECOND 



one, perfectly fresh, covered over with 

 moss and down inside a Hedge Spar- 

 row's nest wherein the bird had laid 

 none of her own. I have known one 

 lie untouched outside a Meadow Pipit's 

 nest, but whether left there by the 

 layer or cast forth by the owner of the 

 structure it is impossible to say. 

 A short time ago a friend of mine found 



a S edge 

 Warbler's 

 nest near 

 Gloucester 

 with four 

 eggs in it. 

 The following day 

 when we returned 

 to the place the 

 nest contained 

 only three and a 

 Cuckoo's egg. As 

 I wanted a pho- 

 tograph of a mem- 

 ber of the species for the 

 present work, I parted the 

 thick sedge grass and, erect- 

 ing my camera within a 

 few feet, got everything 

 ready and went into hiding 

 beneath my apparatus. In 

 ii 



