112 CUCKOO. 



the bird from the nest, that the Cuckoo might, for the time, 

 and for her own ends, usurp her place. 



It seems that in most cases where the eggs of small birds 

 are found in nests which contain those of the Cuckoo, the 

 former have been laid after the latter, and in addition, often, 

 to others previously thrown out by the Cuckoo. In one 

 instance six young Titlarks were found in a nest with a young 

 Cuckoo. It appears that the Cuckoo lays her own egg before 

 removing any already in the nest; and her being disturbed 

 in the eviction, may be the cause of the other eggs being 

 sometimes found with hers; for more than once a small bird 

 has been observed resolutely attacking and successfully repelling 

 a Cuckoo from her nest. If there be no egg in the nest at 

 the time that the Cuckoo lays hers, it is asserted that the 

 other bird will turn the Cuckoo's egg out, though she will 

 not if the Cuckoo have removed one or more that have been 

 in it. 



The eggs are not laid until the middle of May, and they 

 require about a fortnight's incubation. Montagu found one 

 so late as the 26th. of June; and Mr. Jesse records that a 

 young Cuckoo which had only just left the nest of a Wagtail, 

 was found in Hampton Court Park, on the 18th. of August, 

 1832. The young birds are not able to fly in less than five 

 or six weeks. 



Occasionally two Cuckoos' eggs are found in one and the 

 same nest; but they are supposed to be those of different 

 birds. It is thought, however, that the Cuckoo lays more 

 than one egg in different nests, and probably more than two, 

 at intervals, in the season Bewick says from four to six; 

 but I think it must have been a guess; Blumenbach also 

 says six. Mr. M. Capper, of Shirley, informs me that he found 

 on Shirley Common, in the nest of a Meadow Pipit, two 

 Cuckoos' eggs, of dissimilar colouring and size, and therefore 

 probably deposited by two different birds. Lighter-coloured 

 varieties occur. 



Male; weight, about four ounces and a half; length, one 

 foot one inch and a half to one foot two inches; bill, black, 

 or blackish brown, and slightly bent, yellowish at the base 

 of the lower one; inside it is red; iris, yellow; head, crown, 

 neck behind, and nape, dark ash-colour; chin, throat, and 

 breast above, pale ash-colour, in some specimens inclining to 

 rufous brown; below the latter is dull white, barred across 

 with undulating black lines ; back, dark ash-colour. The wings 



