186 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. xv. 



Cuckoo played a leading part in the tragedy. Another 

 female Cuckoo occupied an adjoining territory. I found 

 this bird in 1920 and had already found three of her eggs 

 this year, all with Hedge-Sparrow's eggs in a low quickset 

 hedge adjoining the marshes. A shortage of Hedge-Sparrows' 

 nests, no doubt, caused this Cuckoo to trespass, for I found 

 her next egg in the nest of a Reed-Warbler in the main ditch 

 of my own bird's territory. Two days later I picked up the 

 dead body of a Cuckoo roughly a hundred yards from this 

 nest, and I never traced this bird again. The possibility 

 is that this bird which used Hedge-Sparrows as fosterers 

 needed no protection when dealing with such docile birds 

 as Hedge-Sparrows and consequently trespassed on my own 

 Cuckoo's ground where she deposited with the Reed-Warbler 

 without any male consort. 



I imagine that my female Cuckoo with her one or two males 

 pitched into the intruder and had matters all their own way. 

 In any case I never got another of her eggs and I have 

 definitely given her up as lost. 



