400 Parasite Habits of the Night-jar, 
Since writing the above, I have met with two instances in 
which I think the night-jar (Caprimflgus europze us) has been 
taken for a cuckoo, as in the preceding ones the cuckoo was 
taken fora night-jar. Ina manuscript of Derham’s on instinct, 
communicated by Pennant to Daines Barrington, it is stated 
that “ the Rev. Mr. Stafford was walking in Glossop Dale, in 
the Peak of Derbyshire, and saw a Gielon rise from its nest, 
which was on the stump of a tree that had been some ice 
felled, so as much to resemble the colour of the bird. In 
this nest were two young cuckoos, one of which he fastened 
to the ground by means of a peg and line, and very frequently, 
for many days, beheld the old cuckoo feed there her young 
ones.”* From this Dr. Fleming hastily leaps to the conclu- 
sion, that, ‘* in some cases, the cuckoo constructs its own 
nest ;” and hence he gives it as a characteristic of the species : 
** Nest seldom constructed by the cuckoo itself, the eggs being 
generally dropped, separately, into the nests of the hedge 
sparrow, &c., in the temporary absence of their owner.” + ‘if 
Dr. Fleming, however, will take the trouble to peruse the fol- 
lowing statements of Dr . Darwin and Dr. Jenner, we think 
he may be induced (as he seems fond of changes) to alter his 
opinion : — 
** The following extract,” says Darwin, “ of a letter from 
the Rev. Mr. Wilmot of Mor ley, near Derby, strengthens 
the truth of the fact above mentioned, of the Bue ene some- 
times making a nest, and hatching her own young. 
“In the beginning of July, 1792, I was attending some 
labourers on my farm, when one of them said to me, ‘ There 
is a bird’s nest upon one of coal-slack hills: the bird is now 
sitting, and is exactly like a cuckoo. ‘They say that cuckoos 
never hatch their own eggs, otherwise I should have sworn it 
was one. He took me to the spot: it was in an open fallow 
ground. The bird was upon the nest: I stood and observed 
her some time, and was perfectly satisfied it was a cuckoo. I 
then put my hand towards her, and she almost let me touch 
her before she rose from the nest ; which she appeared to quit 
with great uneasiness, skimming over the ground in the man- 
ner that a hen partridge does when disturbed from a new- 
hatched brood, and went only to a thicket 40 or 50 yards 
from the nest, and continued there as long as I stayed to ob- 
serve her, which was not many minutes. In the nest, which 
was barely a hole scratched out of the coal-slack, in the man- 
ner of a plover’s nest, I observed three eggs, but did not 
* Philosophical Transactions for 1772, p. 299. 
+ British Zool., p. 90. 
