Vol. xliii.] 52 



Cuckoo whom we called " Mary Pickford " (which laid 

 fourteen eggs for us last year) — a different bird, let it be 

 clearly understood, and not, as Mr. Baker states, that which 

 liolds the 61-egg record *. I refer to the photograph showing 

 tlie Cuckoo holding the egg in the tip of her beak. Miss 

 Turner states that after she had waited a very long time this 

 Cuckoo came down and approached the dummy nest which 

 Mr. Smyth laid down alongside the extremely well-concealed 

 Meadow-Pipit's nest, for which the Cuckoo intended her egg. 

 Imagine Miss Turner's tense excitement as she waited and 

 watched the Cuckoo approach the nest, put her head down, 

 and pick up an egg. Miss Turner immediately released her 

 shutter, which caught the Cuckoo in the act, but the click 

 of the chimera frightened her, and, instead of sitting down 

 upon the nest to lay her egg, she flew away with the egg 

 she had taken from the dummy nest in her beak. Miss 

 Turner came out of her hide, and found that there was one 

 less egg in the nest than before the Cuckoo's visit and, of 

 course, no egg of the Cuckoo. 



That the Cuckoo intended to lay in that nest is proved by 

 the fact that nearly two hours later the Cuckoo returned, 

 and was this time seen by Mr. Smyth to approach the 

 nest and in precisely similar fashion remove another egg, 

 then settle down on the nest and, in the usual space of 

 about eight seconds, lay her own egg in exchange. 



I hope Mr. Baker or Mr. Bunyard will tell us later on 

 this evening how that Cuckoo proposed to " cough up " her 

 own egg into the nest in exchange for the one she had 

 already taken, and continued to hold in her beak, from the 

 dummy nest ! 



It' another illustration is needed, in my album of photo- 

 graphs you will find one of the same Cuckoo, " Mary 

 PickPord/' actually sitting upon the nest in the act of laying 

 her 11th egg, with the maternal Meadow-Pipit standing by. 

 That photograph was taken by Mr. Hawkins, who watched 

 the Cuckoo throughout the whole proceeding. 



If the Cuckoo regurgitates th« egg, where is the necessity 



* [Cuckoo " A " Laid the record number of 25 eggs in 1922 — her fifth 

 season.— E. P. C, Dec. 1022.] 



