( 218 ) 



A THIRD SEASON'S OBSERVATIONS ON A 

 CUCKOO. 



EDGAR CHANCE, m.b.o.u 



It may perhaps be recalled by some of the readers of British 

 Birds, and more especially by those who are particularly 

 interested in the ways of Cucidits c. canorus, that I expressed 

 a wish, in the number for August last {anfea, p. 70), to submit 

 a detailed account of my last season's observations on a 

 Cuckoo which laid the hitherto unheard of number of twenty- 

 one eggs. 



In the endeavour to prepare such an account I found that 

 my notes, taken over a period in May and June, are of so 

 extensive a character as to be, in their entirety; beyond the 

 scope of a magazine article. I must therefore now content 

 myself with a resume of some of the more material facts, 

 leaving the full story to be embodied in a volume which I 

 hope to have the pleasure of publishing at an early date. 



Vols. XII. (pp. 182-4) and XIII. (pp. 90-5) of British 

 Birds contain my observations on this same Cuckoo for the 

 seasons of igi8 and 1919 in which I took nine and sixteen 

 of her eggs respectively. The scene of operations is an 

 exceptionally favourable one for keeping in constant touch 

 with a Cuckoo in occupation of it, for it is a small, and com- 

 paratively open, gorse-clad common about a mile in circum- 

 ference on the edge of a forest in the Midland Counties, and 

 with a little assistance one can keep practically the whole 

 area in view. This Cuckoo had in 1919 been proved to be 

 faithful to the Meadow-Pipit {Anthus pratensis) as a fosterer, 

 and beyond those on the common there are no other Meadow- 

 Pipits breeding within three miles. In support of the now 

 generally accepted fact that she is the same Cuckoo returning 

 season after season, she lays an egg of such a distinctive type 

 that out of many hundreds of other Cuckoos' eggs examined I 

 have not seen one that could be confused with it. As in the 

 previous season, 1919, 1 found sixteen of her eggs, besides two 

 young, it had been suggested that two Cuckoos, mother and 

 daughter, were laying on the same common eggs exactly similar 

 in type. That this was not so is conclusively shown by the 

 fact that experience gained of the bird in 1920 taught me to 

 foretell her movements with such accuracy that we learnt 



