310 Wonders of the Bird World 



built its nest in the mould of a large flower-basket, under the 

 shelter of the geraniums, and a Cuckoo had placed her egg 

 in the nest. As the latter was at least two feet from the 

 edge of the woodwork, it appeared as if the old Cuckoos 

 must remove the young Wagtails when they were hatched. 

 Mr. W. Briggs, the well-known Cookham naturalist, who 

 was the head-gardener at Formosa in the days when Mr. 

 Gould and myself used to visit there, kept watch on this 

 particular Wagtail's nest, with a view to see what would 

 happen when the young Cuckoo was hatched, but the nest 

 was deserted, and the observations came to nothing. 



The foregoing illustration is adapted from the sketch 

 made by Mrs. Hugh Blackburn of the way in which she 

 witnessed the Cuckoo ejecting the rightful occupants of a 

 Meadow-Pipit's nest. Her account of the proceeding is as 

 follows — 



" The nest (which we watched last June after finding 

 the Cuckoo's egg in it) was that of the Common Meadow- 

 Pipit (Titlark, Moss-cheeper), and had two Pipit's eggs 

 besides that of the Cuckoo. It was below a heather bush 

 on the declivity of a low abrupt bank on a highland hill- 

 side in Moidart 



" At one visit the Pipits were found to be hatched, but 

 not the Cuckoo. At the next visit, which was after an 

 interval of forty-eight hours, we found the young Cuckoo 

 alone in the nest, and both the young Pipits lying down 

 the bank, about ten inches from the margin of the nest, but 

 quite lively after being warmed in the hand. They were 

 replaced in the nest beside the Cuckoo, which struggled 

 about until it got its back under one of them, when it 

 climbed backwards directly up the open side of the nest, 

 and hitched the Pipit from its back on the edge. It then 

 stood upright on its legs, which were straddled wide apart, 

 with the claws firmly fixed half-way down the inside of the 

 nest, among the interlacing fibres of which the nest was 



