The Cuckoo. si 



parents for many generations must liavc been roarcfl by the same species, unless 

 indeed it be proved that tlie m;ile l)inl in un way influences the colourinjf of tli<- 

 eggs laid by its progeny. 



In his "Birds of Europe" Mr. H. Dresser, with the as.sistance of Mr. K. 

 Bidwell, has given a list of 92 species in whose nest the egg of our Cuckoo has 

 been obtained, which includes the following British birds :— Magpie, Jay, Great 

 Grey Shrike, Lesser Grey Shrike, Red-backed Shrike, vSpotted Flycatcher, Song- 

 Thrush, Blackbird, Ring Ouzel,* Wheatear, Stonechat, Whinchat, Redstart, Black 

 Redstart, Nightingale, Bluethroat, Robin, Hedge-Sparrow, Reed Warbler, Sedge 

 Wai-bler, Marsh Warbler, Aquatic Warbler, Icterine Warbler, Grasshopper Warbler, 

 Dartford Warbler, Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Chiff-chaff, Blackcap, Barred 

 Warbler, Wood Warbler, Willow Warbler, Gold-crest, Fire-crest, Wren, Creeper, 

 Great Tit, Pied Wagtail, White Wagtail, Grey Wagtail, Blue-headed Wagtail, 

 Yellow Wagtail, Tree Pipit, Meadow Pipit, Tawny Pipit, Rock Pipit, Richard's 

 Pipit, Sky-Lark, Wood-Lark, Crested Lark, Short-toed Lark, Reed Bunting, Com 

 Bunting, Yellow Bunting, Cirl Bunting, Ortolan Bunting, Chaffinch, Brambling, 

 House-Sparrow, Tree-Sparrow, Greenfinch, Hawfinch, Serin, Mealy Redpoll, Linnet, 

 Swallow, Wood-Pigeon, Stock-Dove, Little Grebe. That many of these birds would 

 never rear the young bird is certain, and that some would not try is equally 

 certain ; but when a Cuckoo is hard up for a home in which to deposit an egg, 

 I have known her to place it in an iinfinished Linnet's nest, which was promptly 

 deserted by the owners, for I left the egg /;/ si/n for three daj-s to see what they 

 would do. 



When a Cuckoo lays its egg in the nest of a smaller bird, the offspring of 

 the foster-parents are doomed ; either the eggs are in part or entirely ejected by 

 the parent Cuckoo, or possibly in some cases by their ovm parents ; if hatched 

 they are ejected (as first recorded by Dr. Jenner in 1788, subsequently supported 

 by the evidence of other observers) by the newly hatched Cuckoo ; or, if too large 

 and strong for even this sturd}^ little ruffian, are generally crushed to death against 

 the sides of the nest by the rapid growth of that voracious bird; as I obser\-ed 

 in the case of a Cuckoo reared in the nest of a Song-Thrush (" Zoologist," 1877, 

 p. 300). When two Cuckoo's eggs are deposited in the same nest, the stronger, 

 sooner or later, ejects the weaker bird. 



Various theories have been formed to account for the parasitical habit of the 

 Cuckoo, that favoured by Seebohm being that the female being the prepotent sex 



* Mr. \\". Ruskin Butterfield informs me that some years ago lie and his brother found the egg in the 

 nest of this species : he is of opinion that the Titlark is the favourite foster-parent of the Cuckoo, but although 

 this may be the case in Sussex-, it is certainly not the case in Kent. Mr. Butterfield says he has twice obtained 

 it from nests of the Robin containing wkiie Robin's eggs : the Cuckoos eggs being normal. 



