92 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. xiii. 



resented being deprived of the Cuckoo's egg in exchange 

 for one much more like her own. The seventh egg was 

 exchanged for an egg of a Sky-Lark, and this Meadow-Pipit 

 subsequently laid four eggs. The tenth egg was found at 

 II o'clock in the morning after the night slept on the common, 

 and that also was replaced with a Sky-Lark's egg which had 

 done similar service in two other nests, and as the Meadow- 

 Pipit never laid an egg in the nest I conclude that in this case, 

 at any rate, if not on the other two occasions, the Cuckoo 

 deposited her egg before the Meadow-Pipit had started to 

 lay — an action which would be more likely to be resented 

 by the foster-parents than when the Cuckoo merely exchanges 

 its own egg for that of a solitary egg of the foster-parent. 



On more than one occasion this season, just as observed 

 last year, the Cuckoo was seen to fly from a definite spot on 

 the common chased by one or both of the Meadow-Pipits, 

 on which spot a Meadow-Pipit's nest containing a Cuckoo's 

 egg was subsequently found. 



It will be recollected that last year, in three nests out of 

 the nine from which I took eggs from this same Cuckoo, a 

 second Cuckoo, laying an entirely different egg, also deposited 

 an egg. On July 5th this year, besides finding the eighteenth 

 egg of the first Cuckoo, I found two more Meadow-Pipits' 

 nests each containing an egg of the other Cuckoo, the eggs 

 bearing an unmistakable resemblance to those laid by this 

 second Cuckoo last year. It would be distinctly interesting 

 to know why the second Cuckoo only deposited two eggs 

 on the common this year, especially as those two eggs were 

 deposited in the only two other Meadow-Pipits' nests found 

 on the common during the season. Judging by the incubation, 

 I estimate that those two eggs were deposited about the 28th 

 and 30th of June ; in other words, about four days after the 

 first Cuckoo had completed her series. Were it not for the 

 fact that the two Cuckoos shared three nests last year, I 

 should be inclined to the opinion that the first Cuckoo was 

 of an extra pugnacious and jealous disposition, and declined to 

 brook any rivalry as regards her attentions to the Meadow- 

 Pipits. 



