16 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



strength attributed to the newly-hatched cuckoo as 

 "not proven" or quite incredible; thus Seebohm had 

 said, " One feels inclined to class these narratives with 

 the equally well- authenticated stories of ghosts and 

 other apparitions which abound." 



Since my conversation with Dr. Wallace we have 

 had more of these strange narratives the fables and 

 ghost stories which the unbelievers are compelled in 

 the end to accept and all that Dr. Jenner or his 

 assistant saw others have seen, and some observers 

 have even taken snapshots of the young cuckoo in 

 the act of ejecting his fellow-nestling. But it appears 

 from all the accounts which I have so far read, that in 

 every case the observer was impatient and interfered 

 in the business by touching and irritating the young 

 cuckoo, by putting eggs and other objects on his back, 

 and making other experiments. In the instance I am 

 about to give there was no interference by me or by 

 the others who at intervals watched with me. 



A robin's nest with three robin's eggs and one of 

 the cuckoo was found in a low bank at the side of 

 the small orchard on May 19, 1900. The bird was in- 

 cubating, and on the afternoon of May 27 the cuckoo 

 hatched out. Unfortunately I did not know how 

 long incubation had been going on before the 19th, 

 but from the fact that the cuckoo was first out, it 

 seems probable that the parasite has this further 

 advantage of coming first from the shell. Long ago 

 I found that this was so in the case of the para- 



