48 EGGS AND EGG-COLLECTING. 
THE CUCKOO. 
Tue Cuckoo seems to think he was born to do nothing 
else but tell and re-tell 
“¢ His name to all the hills;” 
for he neither makes a nest nor troubles to rear his young, 
but leaves them to the tender mercies of unpaid nurses, 
being partial to the Wagtail, Hedge-sparrow, and Meadow 
Pipit, who are so affectionate that they have been known 
to follow and feed the young Cuckoo in a cage. Only one 
egg is found in a nest, which is of a reddish-grey, with a 
darker belt formed of numerous confluent spots at the 
thick end of the egg, but they are very variable. 
THE PHEASANT. 
Purasants lay from eight to thirteen eggs of a pale olive- 
green or brown, without spots. Their nests are composed 
chiefly of the dried grass where it is situated, which is on 
the ground amongst weeds, coarse grass, or scrub, in the 
outskirts of woods. It has, however, been found occupying 
a Squirrel’s drey in a Scotch fir, where she hatched her 
young, but did not rear them, as from some cause or other 
they died in the nest. This bird is polygamous. 
THE PIED WAGTAIL. 
Tne nest of this bird is situated in holes in stone walls, 
bridges, crevices of rocks, quarries, &. I remember on 
