32 BIRD GALLERY. 



No. 85. LITTLE GREBE or DABCHICK. 



(Podiceps fluviatilis.) 



A common resident throughout the British Islands wherever reedy 

 streams, lakes, and ponds fringed with reeds are to be found. Small 

 fish, insects, and vegetable-matter form its principal food, but in 

 winter marine animals are also eaten. The rather large nest of reeds 

 and decaying weeds is anchored to some aquatic plant or shrub. 

 The eggs, from four to six in number, are creamy-white when fresh, 

 but soon become stained ; they are almost always covered over with 

 weeds by the* sitting bird before it leaves the nest. In winter the 

 chestnut on the sides of the head and neck is replaced by rufous white, 

 the crown is brown, and the underparts of the body much paler. 



Norfolk, May. 



Presented by Lord Walsingham, F.R.S. 



No. 86. CUCKOO. (Cuculus canoras. j 



This well-known visitor to the British Islands is generally distributed 

 over Europe and Northern Asia during the summer months, arriving 

 in the south of England about the first week in April and remaining till 

 August or sometimes later. The food consists of insects and their 

 larvae, especially hairy caterpillars. The parasitic habits of this bird are 

 well known ; it builds no nest, and the female Cuckoo lavs her egg on 

 the ground, conveying it in her bill to the nest of the foster- parent. The 

 Hedge-Sparrow, Wagtail, Meadow-Pipit, Sedge-Warbler, and Heed- 

 Warbler are the hosts generally selected, but the nests of many other 

 species are less frequently made use of. Soon after the young bird is 

 hatched it ejects the other nestlings, and when two young cuekoos 

 occupy the same nest the struggle for existence is sometimas severe. 

 From four to eight eggs are laid in a season and the period of incuba- 

 tion lasts for twelve or thirteen days. The eggs laid by different 

 individuals vary greatly in colour, sometimes resembling those of the 

 foster-parent ; pale blue eggs are occasionally found like those of the 

 Hedge-Sparrow and Redstart, but are not invariably placed in nests of 

 these birds. 



Norfolk, June. 



Presented by Lord Walsingham, F.P.S. 



