RED-LETTER DAYS AMONG BIRDS 



51 



May 1905 I had the honour of exhibiting a series of photos before 

 the Royal Society. The Daily News headline the following day 

 read : " Scientists at Play. The Whirl of the Atoms . . . Crimes 

 of the Baby Cuckoo," whilst the Daily Graphic had : " Science 

 at Burlington House. Royal Society's Soiree. The Fate of 

 Baby Bunting." I have watched the solicitous Meadow Pipit 

 on the Northern moorlands feeding its foster-child, and wondered 

 many times why so much patience and parental affection should 

 be exercised by another species of bird upon such a callous 

 Philistine as the young Cuckoo is known to be. When it is out 

 of the nest, lazily perched on a neighbouring tree branch, it per- 

 sistently cries aloud for food, and, like Oliver Twist, is always 

 asking for more. As it increases in size, as a result of the cargoes 

 of hairy larvae that are delivered, the small foster parents, no 

 larger than Sparrows, find it difficult to reach the gaping orifice, 

 and the illustration (Fig. 17) shows the Meadow Pipit actually 

 perched on the " shoulder " of its ungainly charge, in its untiring 

 efforts to satisfy the voracious cravings of the feathered parasite 

 Nature has entrusted to its care. 



// 



FIG. 17. HIDDEN DEPTHS. 



The various species of Titmice in North Hertfordshire have 

 had a wonderful time this Spring and Summer (1917), and there 

 is little doubt, I think, that the two hundred nesting boxes which 

 have been erected at Letch worth, are partly responsible. 



Four nesting-boxes I had under observation contained no less 

 than fifty -three young birds, an average of thirteen per nest ! 



