3970 The Zoologist — May, 1874. 



On the following page is a memorandum serving entirely to cor- 

 roborate Dr. Jenner's account of the manner in which the young 

 cuckoo ejects its foster-brothers and sisters: this is the more 

 valuable, because certain subsequent naturalists have expressed 

 great doubts as to Dr. Jenner's accuracy, and consequently as to the 

 ability of the young cuckoo to perform such an athletic feat. 



" On the both of June, 1823, I took a youug cuckoo, which was hatched 

 in a titlark's uest, on White Moss, on the 28tb, seven days after the old birds 

 had quitted that neighbourhood ; and this nestling, while in my possession, 

 afforded rae an opportunity of contemplating at leisure the entire process of 

 ejecting young birds and eggs from the nest, so minutely and accurately 

 described by Dr. Jenner. I observed that this bird, though so young, 

 threw itself backwards with considerable force when anything touched it 

 unexpectedly. It died on the 2nd of July, the fifth day after it was 

 hatched, and then weighed 318 grains." — P. 67. 



Mr. Gould is one of the sceptics to whom I have alluded, but 

 that eminent ornithologist has recently found abundant reason for 

 altering his opinion. The incident narrated below was com- 

 municated to Mr. Gould, and was published by him in the ' Intro- 

 duction to the Birds of Great Britain,' together with an illustration 

 exhibiting the young cuckoo in the very act of ejecting a titlark 

 from its birth-place: the narrative as well as the illustration are 

 reproduced in the 'Field' of November 22nd, in a paper by 

 Mr. Harting, from which I have extracted the following most 

 interesting paragraphs, from the pen of Mrs. Blackburn, an eye- 

 witness of the proceeding. 



" The uest which wc watched last Juno, after finding the cuckoo's egg in 

 it, was that of the common meadow pipit (titlark, moss cheeper), and had 

 two pipit's eggs, besides that of the cuckoo. It was below a heather-bush, 

 on the declivity of a low abrupt bank, on a Highland hill-side, in Moidart. 

 At one visit the pipits were found to be hatched, but not the cuckoo. At 

 the next visit, which was after an interval of forty-eight hours, we found 

 the young cuckoo alone in the nest, and both the young pipits lying on 

 the bank, about ten inches from the margin of the nest, but quite lively 

 after being warmed in the hand. They were replaced in the nest beside 

 the cuckoo, which struggled about till it got its back under one of them, 

 when it climbed backwards directly up the open side of the nest, and 

 hitched the pipit from its back on to the edge. It then stood quite upright 

 on its legs, which were straddled wide apart, with the claws firmly fixed 

 half-way down the iubide of the nest, among the interlacing fibres of which 



