OTHER BIRDS 81 



on higher ground they first rise straight up 

 into the air and then dart off in a perfect 

 bee-line to their destination. He also said 

 that kingfishers invariably desert a nest that 

 has been touched. He was repairing the 

 embankment of the Bollin once when a king- 

 fisher's nest was accidentally laid open, and 

 although the nest itself was not injured, and 

 the two young ones in it were nearly fledged 

 and fought at his hand like little owls, when 

 two days later he was at the place again he 

 found them both dead, unable to find food 

 for themselves and forsaken by their parents. 



The coming of the cuckoo seems to be of 

 more interest to people here than any event 

 in natural history, and cuckoos are, I should 

 say, more plentiful with us than in many 

 places, and are nearly as often seen as heard. 



I must have seen a dozen one day in May 

 from the high road during a short drive of 

 a few miles, and, generally speaking, in May 

 not a day (I should not be far out if I said 

 not an hour of the day) goes by without our 

 knowing by sight as well as sound that there 

 are cuckoos in the garden. 



The widespread belief that cuckoos turn 

 into hawks in winter is still seriously held in 

 Cheshire to-day, even by farmers. 



For three days in the end of July, 1905, I 

 was able from my study window to watch a 

 young cuckoo being fed by its foster-parent, 

 a meadow-pipit. The cuckoo was sitting on 



