66 BRITISH BIRDS, THEIR EGGS AND NESTS. 



I fed them. But they never suffered their young to come to the 

 feast I provided, and always absented themselves for about a 

 month at the breeding time. The nest is, I believe, always made 

 in the hole of a tree, and if the aperture to the hollow is too 

 large, the bird is apt to lessen it by the application of a 

 sort of mud -plaster to some portions of the edge. The nest is 

 rather a contrast to that of the little Wren just named, being 

 little more than a loose heap of moss, small twigs, and chips of 

 bark and wood. The eggs are five or six and sometimes, it is said, 

 seven in number, white, with some pale-red spots. Many of 

 them are very like the Larger Titmouse's. Fig. 18, plate IV. 



III. CUCULID^E. 



134. CUCKOO. (Cuculus canorus.) 



Gowk. Have you heard the Cuckoo yet ? How often that 

 question is asked by one's friends or neighbours in the country. 

 Hearing the first Cuckoo and seeing the first Swallow are 

 always events to true lovers of country scenes and objects and 

 sounds. But what a strange instinct it is which forbids our 

 Cuckoo to build a nest, and instructs it to lay its egg at least 

 to place it in some other bird's nest, and that bird usually not 

 one-fifth its own size ! A Blackbird's nest is sometimes selected 

 to receive the deposit, but very rarely compared with the Hedge 

 Sparrow's, the Lark's, the Meadow Pipit's, the Water Wagtail's, 

 or the Chaffinch's. How many eggs are laid by a single Cuckoo 

 in a season, is, I think, not ascertained. It is, however, a very 

 rare circumstance to find more than one Cuckoo's egg in any 

 given nest, and then open to great doubt if both were placed 

 there by the same Cuckoo. It is a matter of dispute how the 

 egg is actually deposited in the nest selected ; whether "laid" 

 in, or placed in after being dropped on the ground suppose 

 by the bill or claws. I found one in the Meadow Pipit's nest 

 mentioned above (p. 47), where the position and site of the 

 nest were such as to leave no doubt whatever in my mind that 

 the egg could not possibly have been ' ( laid" in the nest ; and 

 almost certainly inserted by aid of the beak. How the Cuckoo 

 found such a nest at all, was a marvel to me. The eggs are 

 very small for the size of the bird which produces them, and 

 strongly resemble some of the darker and more closely freckled 

 specimens of the House Sparrow's egg, but are rather larger 

 in size ; while Mr. Doubleday says some of them resemble those 

 of the Pied Wagtail. Fir/. 19, plate IV. 



135. YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. (&HW/M Americans). 

 A rare yisitor only. 



