358 cuculid.&. 



west of the county of Donegal. The stay of the cuckoo was re- 

 markably prolonged in 1838, — in which year the period of their 

 arrival was also later than ever known. One was heard calling at 

 "The Falls" near Belfast, on the 7th of July * The young birds 

 of the year generally remain till towards the end of August ; so 

 late as the 27th of which month they have been observed in the 

 county of Antrim. The Bishop of Norwich, in his Familiar 

 History of Birds, records an instance of about forty cuckoos 

 being congregated in a garden in the county of Down, from the 

 18th to the 22nd of July, and with the exception of one or two, 

 which were smaller than the rest, taking their departure at that 

 time. It is not stated whether they were adult or immature birds, 

 and the time mentioned is between the periods of departure of 

 the old and young ; but from one or two remarks made, we may 

 infer, that they were the latter. On the 5th of October a few 

 years since, two young cuckoos were shot in a garden near Tralee ; 

 they were both in high condition.f An adult bird was shot at 

 the migratory period a few years ago when flying singly in a 

 southerly direction over the sea, about two miles off Dundrum, 

 county Down. 



The singular economy of the cuckoo in depositing its eggs in 

 the nests of other birds, has been very fully treated of, from per- 

 sonal observation, by the celebrated Dr. Jenner, % Mr. Blackwall,§ 

 Mr. Weir, 1 1 and others. I have not anything novel to offer on 

 the subject, but will introduce a few observations made in Ireland. 

 In the north of the island,^" as in Scotland,** the nest of the tit- 



* In M'Skimmin's History of Carrickfergus (1823), it is remarked, that — " During 

 20 years' observation, the earliest it has been heard calling, was the 17th of April, and 

 the latest, the 30th of June." 



f Mr. R. Chute. % Philosophical Transactions, vol. lxxviii. § Researches in Zoology. 

 || Macgillivray's British Birds, vol. iii. 



If Mr. Poole writing from the county of Wexford, mentions the titlark's nest as the 

 usual receptacle of the cuckoo's egg there. Mr. R. Warren, junr., has seen the young 

 cuckoo in the nest of the hedge-accentor, at Monkstown, near Cork. When at the 

 Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, on the 8th of June, 1844, a young cucfto was pointed 

 out to me in a robin's nest, by Mr. W. J. Smith, the curator, who mentioned, that 

 iliis bird generally builds here on_the ground, as in the present instance. Wc had 

 circumstantial evidence of the nest being the property of a bird of this species, as a 

 robin with a worm in its. bill kept anxiously watching our movemeuts in its vicinity. 

 ** Jardinc ; Macgillivrnv. 



