176 COUNTRY RAMBLES. 



Six snapshots were taken at various stages, and the two most 

 important are here reproduced. 



By this time the Cuckoo was five or six days old, and the Yellow 

 Bunting was about three or four, and it should be remembered that 

 for the first few days the Cuckoo is quite blind! 



The nest was then stretched out (it should be stated that the 

 nest of the Meadow Pipit is built on the ground) to try and save the 

 young Yellow Bunting, but on visiting the nest the following day 

 (June 13th) the bird was found lying dead outside. 



The next visit was paid on June 17th, when a young Hedge 

 Sparrow was placed in the nest to see what further performances would 

 take place, but the two birds sat quite contentedly together, and the 

 following day (June 18th) they were still living quite amicably. 



On June 19th both birds were progressing very rapidly, and the 

 photo produced shows this in a marked manner. It seems strange 

 that the bird who would not allow anything to be beside it only a 

 few days previously now allowed a young bird to live in harmony 

 with it. When the young Hedge Sparrow was put into the nest it 

 would be about eight days old, and the Cuckoo ten or eleven days. 



About the same time as the above-mentioned incidents took place 

 Mr. Craig found another Cuckoo's egg in a Meadow Pipit's nest, and 

 this bird ejected all the four Pipit's eggs, one of them being thrown 

 out when the bird was not twenty-four hours oldl One of the photos 

 illustrates the young Cuckoo with the egg in the hollow of its back, 

 and to be appreciated this photo should be looked at from on top, as 

 the nest being built on the ground, it seems from any other position 

 somewhat out of place. 



In conclusion, I may state that the young Cuckoo has a depression 

 on the back, which gives a more secure lodgment to the young bird 

 or egg, and the back is broad considering the size of the bird. It 

 makes considerable use of its wings in steadying the bird on its back 

 and to prevent it from rolling back into the nest again, as well as 

 examining, as it were, a bird or an egg in the nest. 



