Romance of the Ctickoo. 129 



It has been asserted by some naturalists that the Cuckoo 

 has been known to take some interest in its future offspring, 

 but I have spent much of my leisure time near the nests which 

 have contained Cuckoo's eggs, from the time the eggs have 

 been laid, to the time of the young Cuckoo leaving the nest, 

 but I have neVer seen anything in their behaviour which 

 would lead one to support this assertion. I should not, 

 however, like it to be inferred that I deny that occasionally 

 this may be done by individual Cuckoos, for there is no limit 

 to their vagaries. 



Contrary to what one might expect, the Cuckoo will some- 

 times not only take all the eggs in a nest, afterwards depositing 

 its egg, but in such instances, the eggs of the dupe usually 

 have been known to have been incubated for some time, but 

 for some inscrutable reason, it will rob nests of all their young, 

 and it is even said that it will sometimes remove a foster 

 parent from a nest, in which it intends to deposit its egg. 

 Such an instance is recorded in The Field by Mr. C. Wickam, 

 Manchester, whose gardener saw a Cuckoo fly down to an 

 ivy-coloured wall and emerge in a moment carrying in its 

 beak a Wagtail held by both wings and flew to some distance 

 with its burden. On inspecting the nest a Cuckoo's egg was 

 found, but the Wagtail forsook the nest. 



Young Cuckoos, after they leave their nests on account of 

 their wandering habits, are very apt to lose their foster-parents, 

 and such is the fascinating power of the young Cuckoo in such 

 circumstances that it would seem there is usually no difficulty 

 in attracting other birds, other than its foster-parents, to 

 provide for its physical needs. A young Cuckoo has been 

 known to have been attended by no fewer than six Pied Wag- 

 tails, and even in some instances, it has been known to have 

 been fed by two, if not three, different species of birds. 



As to the origin of the parasitic habits of the Cuckoo, many 

 theories have been advanced, all more or less unsatisfactory, the 

 comparative long interval which elapses between the laying of 

 each egg, being perhaps the most important factor. Another 

 assumption given is that on account of the bulk of the adult, 

 Cuckoos having to migrate by the middle of July, said to be for 

 lack of food, the time is insufficient, and the Cuckoos would 

 have to migrate before the young ones could shift for themselves. 

 But the question might still be asked, why should Cuckoos 

 migrate by the middle of July, for food at this time is more 

 abundant than at any other period since their arrival ? It 

 used to be thought that the Cuckoo lived almost exclusively 

 on large hairy caterpillars, but such is by no means the case, 

 their food being quite as varied as that of most other birds. 



Most naturahsts now assume that the Common Cuckoo 

 is polyandrous, and a few even assert it is so in a marked 



1918 April 1. 



