JUNE, 1 88 1. 13 



heavy bird at the best, and its legs are set so far back 

 that the whole weight is in front, and how it could sup- 

 port its " too, too solid flesh," hanging thus head down- 

 ward, was difficult to conceive. Its feet must be much 

 more muscular than at first sight appears. We never 

 saw even an awkward duck in a more awkward position. 

 Year after year at a certain time come to our ears the 

 monotonous sound of the cuckoo's note, and immediately 

 thereafter follows the almost equally monotonous story 

 of its eggs and its ways, with numberless disquisitions 

 thereanent. Two years ago we noted the presence of a 

 young cuckoo in a nest near at hand, that had managed 

 to oust its foster brethren in orthodox fashion, and 

 reigned supreme. We were very near permitting a simi- 

 lar murderous proceeding on our other side, but deter- 

 mined in place thereof to purloin the egg of the marauder. 

 The last egg of a cuckoo we purloined was from the nest 

 of a hedge-sparrow, where it is not so strange that a 

 cuckoo could deposit it ; but in this instance the egg 

 was in the nest of a tit lark or meadow pipit (anthus 

 pratensis) which is not properly a lark, but a pipit 

 and how the cuckoo could deposit it there naturally we 

 could not conceive. The nest was most skilfully con- 

 cealed in a small cavity under a piece of bank on the 

 hill, most thoroughly protected from any ordinary eye, 

 and with such a small entrance that we do not believe a 

 cuckoo could have laid it there. The egg is very little 

 larger than that of the meadow pipit, and little different 

 in shade, so we took two of the pipit's five eggs and the 

 one of the cuckoo, to show the proper appearance 

 thereof as it lay in its place among the others. But we 

 did not quite anticipate the result. After blowing one of 

 the pipit's eggs so as to ascertain the condition of the 



