THE CUCKOO 139 



my presence so little that they came almost within arm's length of 

 me. These single combats account for the belief formerly enter- 

 tained that the Cuckoo was the only sort of Hawk that preyed on 

 its own kind. The female does not pair or keep to one mate. It is, 

 however, frequently accompanied by a small bird of another kind, 

 said to be a Meadow Pipit. 



The Cuckoo hunts for its food both in trees and on the ground. 

 On its first arrival it lives principally on beetles, but when cater- 

 pillars become abundant it prefers them, especially the hairy sorts. 

 In the months of May and June, the female Cuckoo lays her eggs 

 (the number of which is variously estimated from five to twelve), 

 choosing a separate locality for each, and that invariably the nest 

 of some other bird. The nests in which the egg of a Cuckoo has 

 been found in this country are those of the Hedge Sparrow, Robin, 

 Redstart, Whitethroat, WiUow Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Wagtail, 

 Pipit, Skylark, Yellow Bunting, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Linnet, 

 Blackbird and Wren ; the Pipit being the most frequent. It has 

 now been ascertained that the nests of birds in which the Cuckoo lays 

 its eggs in different countries number 145 species.'- In some of these 

 instances, the position and structure of the nests were such that a 

 bird of so large a size could not possibly have laid an egg in the usual 

 way. Hence, and from other evidence, it is pretty clear that the 

 egg is in all cases laid at a distance from the nest and carried by the 

 bird in her bill to its destination. The bird can have no difficulty in 

 accomplishing this seemingly hard task ; for the gape of the Cuckoo 

 is wide, and the egg disproportionately small, no larger in fact than 

 the egg of the Skylark, a bird only a fourth of its size. The period 

 during which a nest is fit for the reception of a Cuckoo's egg is short ; 

 if a time were chosen between the completion of the nest and the 

 laying of the first egg by the rightful owner, the Cuckoo could have 

 no security that her egg would receive incubation in good time, and 

 again if the hen were sitting there would be no possibility of intro- 

 ducing her egg surreptitiously. She accordingly searches for a nest 

 in which one egg or more is laid, and in the absence of the owner 

 lays down her burden and departs. There are certain grave sus- 

 picions that the intruder sometimes makes room for her own egg by 

 destroying those already laid ; but this, if it be true, is exceptional. 

 If it were very much larger than the rest, it might excite suspicion, 

 and be either turned out, or be the cause of the nest being deserted ; 

 it would require, moreover, a longer incubation than the rest, and 

 would either fail to be hatched, or produce a young Cuckoo at a 

 time when his foster-brothers had grown strong enough to thwart 

 his evU designs. As it is, after fourteen days' incubation, the eggs 

 are hatched simultaneously, or nearly so, the Cuckoo being generally 



' Mr. Wells Bladen, of Stone, wrote an interesting brochure on this point. — 

 J. A. O. 



