3502 . The Zoologist — May, 1873. 



principally selected are whitethroats, wrens, wagtails, tree pipits, 

 redbreasts, hedgesparrows, willow wrens, sedge warblers, meadow 

 pipits, wliinchats, and even the smallest of our European birds — 

 the goldcrest ! The egg of the cuckoo is small, and always 

 marked like that of the foster-parent selected. Some people 

 assert that the cuckoo which has been brought up by a water 

 wagtail always lays eggs similar to those of that bird. Others, 

 again, believe that the female cuckoo first seeks out a nest wherein 

 to deposit her egg, and that when the right one is found, she looks 

 earnestly at the eggs, with a view of being thereby so affected in 

 her state of pregnancy that she may by this means cause her own egg 

 to assume markings similar to those already in the nest. Neither 

 of these two suppositions has, as yet, been proved to be correct. 

 Naumann believes that he has discovered that one female cuckoo 

 will deposit eggs in the nests of different species, which, if true, 

 quite upsets one of the above suppositions. Sometimes two 

 cuckoo's eggs are found in one nest; these are probably laid by 

 two different birds. Be this, however, as it may, there is no doubt 

 on one point, and that is that the little foundling is deposited in the 

 nest of the foster-parents by its unnatural mother in a most 

 cunning and surreptitious manner. Our readers will labour under a 

 great mistake if they suppose for a moment that the intruder is 

 in any way regarded as a blessing by its foster-parents ; on the 

 contrary, they exhibit great animosity if they chance to detect the 

 cuckoo in her insidious proceeding ; many of those little birds of 

 whose nests the cuckoo avails herself mob her with every demon- 

 stration of hostility, as though she were a bird of prey. Fullyaware 

 of this, the cuckoo always selects a nest where the entire com- 

 plement of eggs have not been laid, so that she can take ad- 

 vantage of the temporary absence of the parent birds. She glides 

 to and from the nest with the caution of a thief; rejoices over her 

 success, should she be able to accomplish her end without being 

 observed by the birds she has so cruelly wronged. In the act of 

 depositing her egg the cuckoo often breaks one of the others, 

 perhaps to suck it, but probably the egg is more often accidentally 

 broken. Usually the rightful owners of the nest lay other eggs 

 after the introduction of the stranger, and then commences the 

 work of incubation. On very rare occasions they will turn the 

 cuckoo's egg out of the nest, though usually they do not entertain 

 the slightest suspicion on the subject, and pursue the business of 

 sitting without further ado. 



