224 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. xiv. 



Cuckoo had visited it during the ten minutes or so that I 

 was away from that part of the common and had just 

 deposited her 12th egg when I saw her at 3.15. 



13TH Egg. 



June 6th. — To-day I was accompanied by my friend, 

 C. F. Bristol, of Edgbaston, who was spending the week-end 

 with me, and the boy Simmonds. Owing to the assumed 

 depredations of the Kestrel the only Meadow-Pipit's nest 

 known of was the third of No. 5 pair, which contained five 

 eggs on the 3rd, one of which I had taken away. On the 

 5th the Pipit was sitting on the four eggs. Both at 10 a.m. 

 and I p.m. to-day there were only three eggs in the nest, 

 cold, and the Pipit not sitting. At 3.42 the Cuckoo flew 

 down to the nest and forward to another favourite tree. 

 Three minutes later she flew back to the nest, which lay 

 between the two parties of observers, and remained beside 

 it for ten minutes, depositing her 13th egg, and removing 

 one of the Pipit's eggs. Meantime the fosterer hovered 

 overhead time and again. Long before to-day I had had 

 unmistakable evidence that the Cuckoo, by watching the 

 owners, finds and selects a nest days before she makes use 

 of it. The present observation also shows that she will still 

 deposit her egg in a selected nest, whether or no it be deserted 

 at the time she is due to lay. I am of the opinion that the 

 Pipit in this case herself removed one of her eggs and then 

 deserted her nest in resentment at the over-attention of the 

 Cuckoo. This opinion will be amplified and supported by 

 evidence given when the 21st egg of the Cuckoo is dealt with. 



14TH Egg. 



June 8th. — The nest forecasted to-day for the reception of 

 the Cuckoo's egg was the third of No. 6 pair. Accompanied 

 by my secretary. Miss Young, I arrived on the common at 

 I p.m. For some time before 3 p.m. onwards the Cuckoo 

 showed evident intentions of utiUzing the nest which I had 

 expected, but was several times disturbed by passers-by. 

 Between 4.30 and 4.45 she made four floating glides down 

 to the nest, evincing the merest pretence of ahghting on the 

 first of these occasions. At the fourth she stayed by the nest 

 for a little over a minute, in which time she laid and deposited 

 her 14th egg and removed one of those of the Pipit. As she 

 flew away I distinctly saw the egg in her mandibles, being 

 able to see through the open beak behind the egg. 



15TH Egg. 



June loth. — For the deposition of to-day's egg there was 

 no Meadow-Pipit's nest available owing, beyond almost all 



