CUCKOO. 183 



nest she intended to deposit them. This idea is, of 

 course, erroneous. Professor Newton's opinion is that 

 the peculiar colour is hereditary in the bird, as is also 

 the habit of laying year after year in the nest of the 

 same bird. In The Zoologist for 1873 ft was mentioned 

 that a Wagtail had built its nest for eight or nine years 

 in the same spot, and that each year it had contained a 

 Cuckoo's egg. The usual colour of the eggs is a greyish- 

 white, with spots of greenish-buff; but some are blue 

 and unspotted. 



The bird most in favour with the Cuckoo seems to be 

 the Meadow Pipit or Titlark ; but she often patronizes 

 the nests of the Pied Wagtail, Hedge Sparrow, Yellow 

 Bunting, and many others. 



Mr. Hudson says that " one of the strange facts in 

 the strange history of this bird, is that her egg is not 

 laid in the nest in which it is found, but is carried by 

 the Cuckoo in her bill, and placed there." Thompson 

 gives an instance in which a Cuckoo was shot with an 

 egg in her throat. As her egg is very small, and her 

 gape very large, this is not a very difficult performance. 



Different reasons have been assigned for the Cuckoo's 

 strange habits ; the most probable seems to be that the 

 old birds remain for so short a time in the country as 

 to make it impossible for their young to be sufficiently 

 strong upon the wing to accompany them in their 

 flight, and that they would thus be certain to perish 

 were it not that their foster-parents tend them with such 

 unremitting pains and attention; this is a question, 

 however, which it is by no means easy to determine. 



Dr. Jenner, in 1788, was the first to discover the fact 

 now so well known, that the young Cuckoo ejects from 



