CUCULID.E. 123 



pet, grieved us miach hy dying towards the end of November, when he 

 Avas in line plumage and condition, through taking a sudden and fatal 

 cold, owing to having been put back into his cage after it had been 

 cleaned, and before it had become completely dry. 



AVe have never become converts to the theory propounded by some 

 naturalists that Cuckoos lay eggs of different colours, and that the Cuckoo 

 places its egg in the nest of that bird the colour of whose eggs most 

 resembles her own. AVe have ourselves taken the egg of the Cuckoo in 

 the nests of the Hedge-Sparrow, Sky-Lark, Meadow-Pipit, Tree-Pipit, and 

 some other birds, and have had many other Cuckoo's eggs pass through 

 our hands, and all these eggs were very much alike in size and colour, 

 closely resembling an ordinary Sky-Lark's egg, and very much of the same 

 tints. 



Cuckoos, it is well known, often arrive in this country in immature 

 j)lumage, and one we have shot in the act of uttering its well-known cry 

 is still, partially, in its brown juvenile dress. We think these young 

 Cuckoos may have been bred, perhaps, in the winter-quarters of the birds, 

 and so were only a few montlis old when they reached our coasts. Various 

 explanations have been given of the parasitism of the Cuckoo, none of them 

 considered satisfactory by Professor Newton, in his admirable account of 

 the Cuckoo in the 4th ed. Yarrell's ' British Eirds,' vol. ii., and " adimc 

 sub judice lis est ;" but we are inclined to follow those naturalists who 

 consider that it may be rendered necessary owing to the short stay, only 

 a little over two months, made by the old Cuckoos in this country, in 

 which there would not be time for them in their own nest to hatch and 

 rear the numerous family which, following the analogy of foreign Cuckoos, 

 we believe they would have. 



From much observation we have come to believe that each pair of 

 Cuckoos on arrival select a certain district, and that an extensive one, 

 of which they make the circuit periodically, having certain favourite 

 meeting-stations, and that in the hedges, fields, and plantations of this 

 district the hen-bird finds the nests she requires for her eggs, of which 

 she lays from eight to ten, or about one a week on an average during her 

 ptay. The question arises, do all these eggs result in young Cuckoos ? 

 We think not ; for young Cuckoos are rare. Perhaps they conceal 

 themselves very cleverly, and their brown plumage is protective, har- 

 monizing so closely with the colour of the branches of trees that they 

 may be easily overlooked. But on the few occasions when we have met 

 with young Cuckoos, they have always been perched awkwardly on some 

 exposed part of a hedge, and one reared in our garden two years ago was 

 always in evidence, sitting on a gate or rail, or to be seen flying from 

 one apple-tree to another in the orchard. 



It is rare to see more than two Cuckoos togotlier, but, occasionally, 

 three or four may be noticed in pursuit of a hen bird, and once wc counted 

 seven flying one after the other from a largo hawthorn. The late Rev. 

 II. A. Julian observed that these birds much frequented the sca-ditt's at 

 Bovisand. 



Cuckoos are restless birds, among the last to go to roost on a summer's 



