COMMON CUCKOO. 191 



and is frequently attended by one or more males. The 

 earliest eggs do not appear to be laid till the middle of 

 May, and Montagu found an egg as late as the 26th of 

 June. Mr. Jesse mentions that a young Cuckoo which 

 had just escaped from a Wagtail's nest was taken in 

 Hampton Court Park on the 18th of August, 1832. The 

 egg which produced this young bird, was probably laid 

 during the second week in July ; and from the middle of 

 May to the middle of July is included, probably, the whole 

 time during which the female Cuckoo produces eggs. 

 These eggs, as it is well known, are exceedingly small 

 compared to the size of the bird. The largest Cuckoo's 

 egg obtained by Dr. Jenner, weighed but fifty-five grains, 

 the smallest only forty-three grains. Of four specimens in 

 my own collection the largest only measures eleven lines 

 and a half in length, and eight lines and a half in breadth. 

 This is the exact size of the egg of the Skylark, yet the 

 comparative size of the two birds is as four to one. The 

 egg of the Cuckoo, according to Mr. Selby, requires four- 

 teen days incubation, and the young are able to leave the 

 nest in three weeks, but require feeding afterwards. 



The egg of the Cuckoo, which is of a pale reddish grey 

 colour, has been found in the nests of the Hedge Accentor, 

 the Robin, the Redstart, Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, 

 Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Rock Pipit, Sky Lark, Yel- 

 low Bunting, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Linnet, and Blackbird, 

 in this country ; and on the European continent, M . Tem- 

 minck says, it has also been found in the nests of the 

 Thrush and the Red-backed Shrike. From the circum- 

 stance of a pair of Red-backed Shrikes having been seen 

 feeding a young Cuckoo, as recorded by Messrs. Sheppard 

 and Whitear in their Catalogue of the Birds of Norfolk 

 and Suffolk, it is probable that the Cuckoo sometimes de- 



