192 



CUCKOO. 



ful in finding a suitable nest in which to place it. | 

 Judging from past experience in the way of birds' 

 nesting, we should think this almost impossible, more 

 especially as the cuckoo's season for laying is when 

 birds' nests are found in greatest abundance ; and 

 penetrating as she does into the very midst of thickets 

 and furze-brakes, we may fairly give the cuckoo credit 

 for being a much better hand at finding them than we 

 are. Although the writer of this has never actually 

 known an instance of the cuckoo's egg being ejected, 

 he has no doubt whatever of this being the sole cause 

 of its extreme scarcity. 



A very favourite resting-place of this species is upon 

 an isolated tree, which commands a wide prospect 

 around ; and, in such situations, the female cuckoo, 

 concealed amid the thickest foliage she can find, sits 

 quietly and observes the operations of the numerous 

 smaller birds around her ; more particularly noticing 

 those which are carrying about building materials, and i 

 marking the place of deposit ; this, also, is probably 

 another reason why the cuckoo's egg should most 

 frequently be found in the nests of ground building 

 birds. " A pair of wagtails," says Mr. Hoy, " fixed : 

 their nest, early in April, among the ivy which covers ; 

 one side of my house, and reared and took off their 

 young. A few days after the young birds had left 

 the nest, I observed the old birds apparently collect- 

 ing materials for building, and was much amused at 

 seeing the young running after the parent birds, with 

 imploring looks and gestures, demanding food ; but 

 the old birds, with roots or pieces of grass in their 

 bills, seemed quite heedless of them, and intent on 

 their new habitation. Their motions were narrowly 

 watched by a female cuckoo, which I saw constantly 

 near the place ; but the wagtails had placed their 

 second nest within a yard of the door, and so well 

 concealed among some luxuriant ivy, that the cuckoo, 

 being often frightened away, was not able to discover 

 the nest. The intruder being thus thwarted in its 

 design, the birds hatched their second brood, which 

 was accidentally destroyed a few days after. In about 

 ten days they actually commenced a third nest within 

 a few feet of the situation of the second, in safety. I 

 have repeatedly taken the cuckoo's eggs from the wag- 

 tail's nest ; in this locality.it has a decided preference 

 to it. I do not recollect finding it in any other, 

 excepting in two instances, once in the hedge-chanter's 

 and another time in the redstart's nest. In this vicinity, 

 whether the wagtail selects the hole of a pollard tree, 

 a cleft in the wall, or a projecting ledge under a 

 bridge, it does not often escape the prying eye of the 

 cuckoo ; as, in all these situations, I have frequently 

 found either egg or young." Sometimes, however, the 

 cuckoo is obliged to wander about a little to find a 

 nest ; the writer of this has noticed one, probably 

 when wanting to lay, to hover slowly along the hedges, 

 penetrating into every thick bush, and examining every 

 likely place to find a bird's nest: upon such occasions 

 the cuckoo, no doubt, deposits its egg in the first 

 nest it can find. 



One or two cases have been mentioned, but we 

 think they much require corroboration, of the egg of 

 this species having been found in situations where it 

 could not possibly have been laid ; that is to say, in 

 domed nests, and others that were so situate that the 

 cuckoo could not possibly have crept into the place, 

 but must consequently have introduced its egg either 

 bv means of the bill or foot. We are very much in 

 want, however, of a new and well authenticated in- 



stance of this ; for, in the cases which have been 

 mentioned, it is by no means impossible that the egg 

 had been surreptitiously introduced ; many school- 

 boys, indeed, would be greatly delighted to think that 

 they had so puzzled a philosopher. In all the in- 

 stances which have fallen under the observation of 

 the writer, and in all that he has ever heard of, from 

 direct observers (which together amount to a very 

 considerable number), the nest was without exception 

 so situate that the cuckoo could have laid its egg 

 into it. 



Mr. Hoy relates the following fact : ' I once observed 

 a cuckoo enter a wagtail's nest, which I had noticed 

 before to contain one egg; in a few minutes the 

 cuckoo crept from the hole and was flying away with 

 something in its beak, which proved to be the eirg of 

 the wag-tail, which it dropped on my firing a gun at 

 it. On examining the nest, the cuckoo had only 

 made an exchange, leaving its own egg for the one 

 taken." It invariably, when undisturbed, destroys 

 whatever other eggs there may be in the nest into 

 which it deposits its own, though this fact has not 

 been noticed by writers on the subject. Whatever 

 other eggs, therefore, may be found in the same nest 

 with that of the cuckoo, were not laid, in most in- 

 stances, till after its deposition. Of this the writer 

 has the most abundant and satisfactory evidence ; he 

 has repeatedly known the cuckoo's egg to have been 

 found alone in different nests, and he has been in- 

 formed by a direct observer, of the following fact : a 

 meadow pipit's nest was found with four eirgs in it, 

 which, on being looked at a day or two afterwards, 

 was observed to contain a solitary cuckoo's egg, all 

 the others having disappeared. On searching about 

 the place the broken shells of them were, however, 

 found at a short distance. Another instance was 

 made known to him by a birds'-ncstitg boy, of whom 

 he purchased the cuckoo's egg. This lad found a 

 meadow pipit's nest with two eggs in it, and going the 

 next day to look at it, these had both disappeared, 

 and that of a cuckoo was in their place alone ; the 

 following day the pipit laid an egg to this, and the 

 day after that another, when the nust was taken I'rom 

 the place. A further proof of this fact may be deduced 

 from the circumstance, that whenever eggs are found 

 in the same nest with that of' the cuckoo, they are 

 almost invariably below their average number. 



In certain cases which would appear to militate 

 against the above, as in that mentioned by Montagu, 

 in which " the hedge-chanter had four eggs when the 

 cuckoo dropped in a fifth," it is highly probable that 

 the cuckoo had been disturbed, perhaps bv the right- 

 ful owners of the nest, before she had had time to 

 finish her operations. The writer of this has seen a 

 meadow pipit attack most resolutely, and drive away, 

 a cuckoo from the vicinity of its abode ; he may 

 pretty safely say from off its nest, as the cuckoo rose 

 from the ground. It would appear, indeed, from 

 the last mentioned fact stated by Mr. Hoy, as well 

 as from some other cases that could be adduced, that 

 the cuckoo invariably lays her own egg previously to 

 destroying the others. It would otherwise seem 

 rather difficult to account for another fact, that of two 

 cuckoos' eggs being sometimes found in the same 

 nest ; of which three or four instances are upon 

 record. " In May, 1829," says Mr. Hoy, " I found two 

 cuckoo's esrgs in the same nest, and depended on 

 witnessing a desperate struggle between the parties, but 

 my hopes were frustrated by some person destroying 



