Romance of the Cuckoo. 95 



nests, whose eggs were deposited afterwards.' The Cuckoo's 

 egg found in the Hedge Sparrow's nest above mentioned, the 

 writer thinks, is the nearest approach to a blue Cuckoo's egg 

 as yet found in this country, having a pale blue ground with only 

 eleven fine freckles. The Cuckoo is sometimes accused of not 

 only robbing one egg, but the whole clutch, after which it has 

 been known to deposit its own egg, but such instances are rare. 



Does the Cuckoo eat birds' eggs or is it a popular legend ? 

 I have little hesitation in answering this question in the affirm- 

 ative, although it is stoutly denied by some naturalists, and 

 even eminent naturalists. Evidence incriminating the Cuckoo 

 of this propensity may be quoted from a brochure by J. H. 

 Gurney, in which a Mr. Wilson states that in the spring of 

 1880 at Porick near Worcester, he actually took the remains 

 of eggs, which he judged to be those of a Robin and Hedge 

 Sparrow, out of the crop of a Cuckoo, and further evidence is 

 given in Booth's rough notes, volume L, on the cuckoo. I 

 should not, however, like it to be inferred that I am accusing 

 the cuckoo — male and female — of sucking birds' eggs in any 

 wholesale or indiscriminate sense, this propensity may be 

 chiefly confined to the female at the time of the introduction 

 of its egg into its dupe's nest. 



The Cuckoo lays its egg in a much greater variety of nests 

 in the south than in the north of Britain, and the egg is much 

 more variable. As I have already stated, the type of egg here 

 is fairly constant, and it could be easily overlooked if placed 

 in the nest of a Skylark. Indeed, I have often wondered why 

 the egg is not oftener placed in the nest of this species, as it 

 is so very abundant and there would be no difficult)^ for the 

 cuckoo to find suitable nests in which to deposit its egg during 

 its stay in this district ; yet I have never found but one egg 

 in the nest of the lark for over forty years ; and this nest was 

 found on a heathy waste where the titlark was in some abund- 

 ance. The cuckoo's egg has been found three times in the 

 nest of the Ring Ouzel within a radius of seven miles from 

 Wilsden. As we get further away from the Pennine Range, 

 the Cuckoo deposits its egg in a greater variety of nests from 

 what it does in this part of Yorkshire. 



The Rev. Julian Tuck writes me that in Suffolk the Hedge 

 Sparrow is the species which is oftenest victimised by the 

 Cuckoo, but he has found its egg in the nests of Thrush, Robin, 

 Blackcap, Whitethroat, Greenfinch, Reed Bunting, Sedge 

 Warbler, Pied Wagtail ; in addition he has been shown the 

 nests of Nightingale, Spotted Flycatcher and Tree Pipit, 

 containing eggs of the Cuckoo. Thrice has he known the egg 

 in the nest of Titlark — once one of this species contained two 

 eggs of the Cuckoo. One of the most unlikely dupes of the 



1918 Mar. 1. 



