CUCKOO. Ill 



unable successfully, to cope. And first, to mention the 

 different species of birds with whose domestic arrangements it 

 so unscrupulously makes free. The following have been already 

 ascertained, and doubtless there are others to be added to the 

 list, or, even if not, there would be, did the parent Cuckoo 

 stand in need of such, failing those about to be enumerated. 

 These are the Dunnock, commonly called the Hedge-Sparrow, 

 the Eobin, the Titlark, the Pied Wagtail, the Kedstart, the 

 Whitethroat, the Willow Warbler, the Rock Lark, the Sky 

 Lark, the Reed Warbler, the Reed Bunting, the Sedge 

 Warbler, the Willow Wren, the Yellow-Hammer, the Blackbird, 

 the Wren, the Throstle, the Whinchat, the Greenfinch, the 

 Grasshopper Warbler, the Chaffinch, and the Red-backed 

 Shrike. 



Some say that the Cuckoo deposits her egg before the other 

 bird has laid hers, in some instances, and in others afterwards; 

 but in the former case the deceived little bird goes on to lay 

 hers, in happy ignorance of the fate that awaits their embryo 

 contents when hatched. It is, I think, quite an erroneous 

 supposition that the Cuckoo ever meets with any delay in 

 finding a nest suitable for her to lay her egg in. At the 

 time when she does lay, birds' nests of all the common species 

 are abundant in every hedge, and there is no more difficulty 

 in her finding one than another It has been imagined that 

 she lays her eggs later in the day than other birds; and this 

 possibly may prove to be the case. 



Mr. Blyth, alluding to the supposition that the egg of the 

 Cuckoo is already partially advanced towards maturity before 

 being laid, thinks that it is somewhat confirmed by its being, 

 as he argues, impossible for the Cuckoo to lay her egg in 

 the nest of a bird which has already begun to sit; but this 

 is quite inconclusive, for not only do birds sit more or less 

 from the very first, as for instance while laying the second and 

 following eggs, at any of which periods the difficulty he 

 imagines would be equally in existence, and the Cuckoo could 

 not tell how soon it would be removed, nor could she wait 

 to see; but it must also be remembered that occasionally the 

 bird leaves her eggs for a short time, even after she has 

 begun to sit, which opportunity the Cuckoo might avail herself 

 of; doubtless also her approach, so manifestly a cause of alarm 

 to small birds, as proved by the way in which the latter 

 pursue the former on the wing, might and would have the 

 effect perhaps the desired and intended effect, of driving off 



