138 BIRDS' NESTS. 



on this subject, in the third volume of " Macgil- 

 livray's British Birds/' The Cuckoo is thought 

 to lay not less than twelve eggs in the course 

 of a single season. It builds no nest of its 

 own, but selects that of the meadow-pipit or 

 wagtail, and less frequently that of the hedge- 

 sparrow, skylark, nightingale, or garden- 

 warbler. An African species of cuckoo has 

 been shot in the act of carrying one of its own 

 eggs in its bill, and it has been conjectured 

 that its English namesake employs the same 

 instrument in depositing its eggs, at least in 

 some cases, inasmuch as the egg of this bird 

 has been found in a wagtail's nest, the entrance 

 to which was so narrow that it could scarcely 

 have been introduced in any other way. How- 

 ever this may be, there is no doubt that, 

 within a few days after the young cuckoo is 

 hatched, he unceremoniously hoists his foster- 

 brothers and sisters on his back and tumbles 

 them out of the nest. He seems, too, to exercise 

 a sort of fascination over his foster-parents, 



