108 A PHILOSOPHER WITH NATURE 



retired corners, I saw a cuckoo, which was calling, 

 flying low and in a peculiar way over the bracken. 

 I stopped and watched the bird, and saw it alight 

 down suddenly out of sight in a meaningful way. 

 Hastening up to the place, I came upon two cuckoos 

 in a dry open space among the ferns, one of them 

 apparently in the act of depositing an egg. Both 

 birds flew awkwardly away on my approach, and 

 I took possession of the egg, which was quite warm. 

 Most careful search was made all round the spot 

 within a considerable radius, in the hope of finding 

 the nest of some small bird for which the egg might 

 have been intended, but no nest of any kind was 

 found. A point which, however, seems worthy 

 of remark is that on afterwards returning to the 

 spot where the egg was picked up I found the broken 

 remains of a similar egg which had apparently been 

 sucked. The conclusion which presented itself 

 to my mind at the time was that the bird had not 

 intended to deposit the egg in any nest. She had 

 probably laid in the same spot before, and had 

 either feasted on the first egg herself or had left it, 

 and it had been found and sucked by some animal. 

 The second egg would most probably have suffered 

 the same fate. 



It is somewhat strange to find that there is still 

 a difference of opinion as regards the behaviour of 

 the nestling cuckoo towards the young of its foster- 

 parents. That the presence of the young bird is 

 fatal to the other birds in the nest is universally 

 conceded, but that the interloper actually and 

 deliberately throws out the rightful owners of the 

 nest, in order to monopolize the whole of the parental 

 care, is still questioned by writers of authority. 



