21' 



D 



15 



Cuckoo. I was therefore obliged to conceal myself in a plantation with the branches of the 

 Scotch fir. When they brought food they always alighted at the distance of about fifteen or 

 twenty yards from their nest, and stole softly amongst the grass at the bottom of the ditch, and 

 now and then stood still and looked around them with a jealous glance to see if their motions 

 were watched. So artfully was their retreat concealed, that no one to whom it was not pointed 

 out would have had much chance of discovering it. As it was at a distance from my residence, 

 I found it inconvenient to watch the habits of this Cuckoo so frequently as I wished. I therefore 

 put it into the nest of a Titlark in my immediate neighbourhood, in which were five young ones 

 about six days old, three of whom I allowed to remain. I went next day in the expectation of 

 seeing the young Cuckoo lying dead. To my astonishment, however, the female was covering it 

 most carefully with outstretched wings from a heavy shower of rain which was then falling. How 

 she devoted her care to this surreptitiously introduced stranger, while her own young ones had 

 in the meantime been expelled by the Cuckoo, and were at that moment lying lifeless within two 

 inches of her nest, is a mystery in the economy of nature, which it would be extremely difficult 

 to solve. I do not recollect having seen it mentioned in any book which I have perused that the 

 cry of the Cuckoo when young resembles that of the Titlark. This, perhaps, was the reason why 

 the foster-parents were so suddenly reconciled to their newly adopted nestling. They fed it most 

 assiduously. On the afternoon of Thursday the 21st it pursued my fingers when I teased it, nine 

 or ten inches beyond the nest, sparring with its wings, and crying like a Hawk. As has been 

 noticed by Colonel Montagu, when about fourteen days old, the restless disposition of these 

 birds appears to cease ; for after that this Cuckoo suffered young birds to remain unmolested in 

 the nest. 



" From a hut formed of heath, within sixteen feet of the same nest, on Saturday the 30th 

 of June, I made the following observations : — The male Titlark had disappeared for two or three 

 days, having been in all probability destroyed by a Sparrow-Hawk, which had young ones in the 

 neighbourhood. The female, notwithstanding the loss of her partner, continued to show to the 

 Cuckoo the most unremitting kindness. Before she went to feed it she always alighted on the 

 top of a Scotch fir, where she remained for some minutes looking anxiously around. She then 

 flew down upon the ground at a distance of several yards from the nest, making zig-zag windings, 

 and occasionally standing still. She brought to it sometimes snails, at other times a mouthful of 

 large worms (some of them were more than three inches in length). One might almost have been 

 inclined to believe that she was aware of the nature of the intruder and the voracity of its dis- 

 position ; for I have never seen any of them bring such quantities of meat when feeding their 

 own young. At the regularity with which she supplied its wants I am truly surprised. For 

 nine successive hours, during which I had watched her, she gave it food exactly four times in each 

 hour. I remained until nine o'clock. She, however, left off her maternal duties at a quarter past 

 eight o'clock. In the morning she attempted to satisfy its craving appetite more frequently, 

 generally seven or eight times within the hour. 



" I shall now give you a short account of the manner in which the egg I lately sent you 

 was discovered to have been deposited in the nest of the Titlark. In its size, tint, and markings 

 it was the same as the one out of which the Cuckoo was hatched whose habits I have just now 



