THE CUCKOO IN THE PIPIT'S NEST. 



struck me most was this : the Cuckoo was perfectly naked, without a vestige 

 of a feather or even a hint of future feathers ; its eyes were not yet opened, 

 and its neck seemed too weak to support the weight of its head. The Pipits 

 had well-developed quills on the wings and back, and had bright eyes, par- 

 tially open ; yet they seemed quite helpless under the manipulations of the 

 Cuckoo, which looked a much less developed creature. The Cuckoo's legs, 

 however, seemed very muscular, and it appeared to feel about with its 

 wings, which were absolutely featherless, as with hands, the * spurious wing ' 

 (unusually large in proportion) looking like a spread-out thumb. The most 

 singular thing of all was the direct purpose with which the blind little 

 monster made for the open side of the nest, the only part where it could 

 throw its burthen down the bank. I think all the spectators felt the sort of 

 horror and awe at the apparent inadequacy of the creature's intelligence to 

 its acts that one might have felt at seeing a toothless hag raise a ghost by an 

 incantation. It was horribly * uncanny ' and ' gruesome.' 



"THE UNIVERSITY, GLASGOW. J. B." 



" SIRS, The confirmation of Jenner's observations as a naturalist, which 

 formed the subject of your leading article last week, is the latest, but it is 

 not the one that is best known. Another confirmation made in 1871 was 

 published in Nature (vol. v., p. 382), which is even more interesting as 

 bearing out Jenner's original account in its most distinctive and most minute 

 points, and as having served to convince Darwin, who introduced a paragraph 

 into his latest revision of the * Origin of Species,' calling it ' a trustworthy 

 account of a young Cuckoo, which was actually seen, whilst still blind and 

 not able even to hold up its own head, in the act of ejecting its foster- 

 brothers.' To show how closely Mrs Blackburn's account agrees with that 

 of Jenner, I have written a few sentences from each in parallel columns. 

 The original observations were made near Berkeley on June 18th, 1787 ; the 

 confirming observations in Iiiverness-shire in June 1871. In the former case 

 a Hedge Sparrow's nest contained when first seen two of the bird's own eggs 

 with one Cuckoo's egg, and next day the newly hatched Cuckoo and one newly 

 hatched Hedge Sparrow ; in the latter case a Meadow Pipit's nest when first 

 seen had two partly fledged Pipits with one Cuckoo's egg, and next day the 

 newly hatched Cuckoo only, the two young Pipits, which were several days 

 old and open-eyed, having been found lying on the bank at a distance of ten 



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