THE CUCKOO. 29 



the Cuckoo's egg probably arises from the fact that the bird 

 cannot find at the time a nest ready for its reception, and is, 

 therefore, obliged to put it into the first nest where there are 

 freshly-laid eggs, which will ultimately be hatched at the same 

 time as the young Cuckoo, and therefore allow the latter the 

 opportunity of turning out its little nest-fellows, and receive the 

 entire attention of the two foster-parents, who find all th.ir 

 time taken up in feeding the voracious youngster. A striking 

 instance of the above fact was noticed by my friend, Mr. C. 

 Bygrave Wharton, who observed a female Cuckoo haunting the 

 vicinity of his grounds at Totton in the New Forest for some 

 days. He at length discovered a Cuckoo's egg in the nest of a 

 Sedge-Warbler, and, beyond the larger size of the egg, there 

 was absolutely nothing to distinguish the egg of the Cuckoo 

 from those of the rightful owner. Some five days afterwards 

 he found an egg of the Cuckoo of the same " Sedge- Warbler " 

 type, but this time in the nest of a Reed-Bunting, whose eggs 

 were, of course, of a wholly different pattern. This seemed to 

 show that the egg laid by the Cuckoo was like that of the 

 Sedge-Warbler, and that on the first occasion the bird had 

 found a nest ready to hand, but, in the case of the second egg, 

 no Sedge- Warbler in the neighbourhood had a nest ready, and 

 therefore the Cuckoo was forced to put it into the nest of the 

 Reed-Bunting. Such instances could no doubt be multi- 

 plied, but, as we have before hinted, the natural history of 

 our Common Cuckoo is such a complex subject that a 

 book might easily be written about the bird and its peculiar 

 habits. 



That the Cuckoo lays its eggs at intervals has long been 

 believed, but Dr. Rey, a well-known German oologist, has 

 recently given his opinion that the interval between the de- 

 position of the eggs is much shorter than is generally supposed, 

 and that a single female will lay from seventeen to twenty-two 

 eggs ! Much has been surmised as to whether the old Cuckoos 

 take any interest in their offspring after it is hatched, but 

 Professor Newton writes, " of the assertion that the Cuckow* 



* Professor Newton always calls the bird the " Cuckow," which is the 

 form "of the more scholarly English ornithologists, as Montagu and 

 Jenyns" (cf. Diet. B. p. 118). The bird itself, however, says " Cuckoo," 

 and even the above learned writer admits that the oldest English spelling of 

 the name seems to have been " Cuccu" 



