EGGS AND EGG-COLLECTING. 149 



THE CUCKOO. 



THE Cuckoo seems to think he was born to do nothing 

 else but tell and re-tell 



" His name to all the hills ; " 



for he neither makes a nest nor troubles to rear his young, 

 but leaves them to the tender mercies of unpaid nurses, 

 being partial to the Wagtail, Hedge-sparrow, and Meadow 

 Pipit, who are so affectionate that they have been known 

 to follow and feed the young Cuckoo in a cage. Only one 

 egg is found in a nest, which is of a reddish-grey, with a 

 darker belt formed of numerous confluent spots at the 

 thick end of the egg, but they are very variable. 



THE PHEASANT. 



PHEASANTS lay from eight to thirteen eggs of a pale olive- 

 green or brown, without spots. Their nests are composed 

 chiefly of the dried grass where it is situated, which is on 

 the ground amongst weeds, coarse grass, or scrub, in the 

 outskirts of woods. It has, however, been found occupying 

 a Squirrel's drey in a Scotch fir, where she hatched her 

 young, but did not rear them, as from some cause or other 

 they died in the nest. This bird is polygamous. 



THE PIED WAGTAIL. 



THE nest of this bird is situated in holes in stone walls, 

 bridges, crevices of rocks, quarries, &c. I remember on 



