The Avifauna. 91 



ferred to. Watching with interest for eight or ten days, 

 we observed the caterpillars gradually became scarcer, 

 and the cuckoos shortly afterwards disappeared. 



A friend, while botanising around Cobbinshaw 

 Loch, discovered a young cuckoo, not quite fledged, 

 in a wagtail's nest. Thinking to make a pet of it, he 

 put it in his pocket \yith the intention of taking it 

 home. Having some time to wait for a train, he 

 turned up stones in search of insects, which he 

 transferred into the gaping mouth of the cuckoo. It 

 seemed insatiable, and before the arrival of the train 

 he felt he had made a mistake in removing it from the 

 nest, as to provide a sufficient number of insects to 

 satisfy the bird seemed an impossibility. Anxious 

 now to get rid of it, he, on reaching Edinburgh, 

 handed it over to Mr Dewar, naturalist, St Patrick 

 Square. That gentleman fed it exclusively with 

 pease-brose, made with boiling water, and formed with 

 the finger and thumb into oblong pellets, putting them 

 into the bird's mouth when it gaped, which it did with 

 great eagerness. After keeping it for a fortnight in 

 this manner, an enthusiastic lady naturalist, the late 



