138 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. xm. 



of " hard-billed " species being somewhat unusual, more often 

 than not leads to the taking of the eggs and so opportunities 

 for subsequent observation are lost, but it must occur from 

 time tc time that young Cuckoos are found in nests of these 

 species. My attention was first drawn to this subject by an 

 experiment that I made this year. On May i8th I found a 

 Hedge-Sparrow's nest in south-west Kent containing a 

 Cuckoo's egg and two of the owner's, a third lying recently 

 broken on the grass a few yards from the nest. Now this was 

 the first and only Hedge-Sparrow's nest on this property since 

 the stock was completely wiped out by the 1916-17 winter, 

 and as I was particularly anxious that they should rear a 

 brood, and it being perfectly obvious that if the Cuckoo's egg 

 remained in their nest they would not do so, I removed it and 

 placed it in the nest of a Greenfinch that contained three 

 eggs (removing one of the latter) . The Greenfinch's nest was 

 the only one available at the moment, in the correct stage 

 for substitution. The Cuckoo's egg was of the ordinary Pied 

 Wagtail type. Both birds completed their clutches and the 

 Hedge-Sparrows reared their brood. The Cuckoo's egg also 

 hatched and the Greenfinch's eggs or young were evidently 

 ejected in the usual manner. I was unable to revisit the nest, 

 however, until June 14th, when I found the young Cuckoo 

 dead in the nest. It had evidently lived and been fed by its 

 foster-parents for some days, as it had died on reaching the 

 stage when the larger quill -feathers had just begun to sprout. 

 It is exceedingly unlikely that any accident had befallen the 

 foster-parents. 



It seems to me that this result is really what one would 

 naturally expect, the regurgitated, partly digested, vegetarian 

 food supplied by the Greenfinches suffices for the young 

 Cuckoo until it reaches a certain size and stage of development, 

 but is insufficient or the proteid in it is inadequately digested 

 in sufficient quantity when the purel^^ insectivorous Cuckoo 

 reaches that size and requires to begin to make feathers. The 

 question naturally follows : are young Cuckoos ever reared 

 to maturity by Greenfinches ? N. F. Ticehurst. 



FIERCE ATTACK ON A CUCKOO BY A 

 MEADOW-PIPIT. 



I 'was standing in the open in the middle of a marsh near 

 Dublin, in June 1919, when two Cuckoos {Cucuhis c. canorus) 

 came flying by, one about five yards behind the other. The 

 second one made the usual call note, and was, therefore. 



