A CUCKOO IN A ROBIN'S NEST 23 



refrained from touching the nest, as there were yet 

 other things to observe. One was the presence, very 

 close to the nest, of the ejected nestling what would 

 the parents do in the case ? Before dealing with that 

 matter I shall conclude the history of the young cuckoo. 



Having got the nest to himself he rested very 

 quietly, and it was not till the following day (July 1st) 

 that I allowed myself to touch him. He was, I found, 

 still irritable, and when I put back the eggs he had 

 thrown out he was again miserable in the nest, and 

 the struggle with the eggs was renewed until he got 

 rid of them as before. The next day the irritability 

 had almost gone, and in the afternoon he suffered 

 an egg or a pebble to remain in the nest with him 

 without jerking and wriggling about, and he made 

 no further attempt to eject it. This observation 

 the loss of irritability on the fifth day after hatching 

 agrees with that of Mr. Craig, whose account was 

 printed in the Feathered World, July 14, 1899. 



The young cuckoo grew rapidly and soon trod his 

 nest into a broad platform, on which he reposed, a 

 conspicuous object in the scanty herbage on the bank. 

 We often visited and fed him, when he would puff 

 up his plumage and strike savagely at our hands, but 

 at the same time he would always gobble down the 

 food we offered. In seventeen days after being hatched 

 he left the nest and took up his position in an oak 

 tree growing on the bank, and there the robins con- 

 tinued feeding him for the next three days, after 

 which we saw no more of him. 



