72 Life History of Common Cuckoo. 



already said, in a great minority compared with the 

 males ; so that in a sense there is hardly trvie mating. 

 This is another fact of the most singular character ; 

 because, on one side, it suggests that some explana- 

 tion of the parasitic tendency in cuckoos may be 

 found in the comparatively low de\elopment of the 

 parts subservient to generation, the small eggs of some, 

 and a consequent weakening of the parental impulses ; 

 though this may be so far met by the fact that the 

 males clearly suffer in this respect more than the 

 females, and by this other and further fact, that some 

 of the parasitic cuckoos, the species of Coccystes 

 amongst them, still lay normally sized eggs. 



We found the following description of the conduct 

 of the female cuckoo towards the males in one of the 

 best authorities : 



" It not infrequently occurs that three or four males 

 are in full chase of a female, who entices them on, 

 and grants her favours to one after the other as they 

 approach her ; after which each male will return to 

 his own district. It appears also that not only does 

 the male return year after year to the same locality, 

 but the female — though she wanders about in search 

 of various lovers when pairing — seems to affect a 

 particular district, where she deposits her eggs in the 

 most suitable nests she can find." ''■'■ 



But, if certain of the males thus return to their 

 own districts, it is out of the question that they can 

 attend on and aid the hen in the guarding of the nest 

 from the foster-parents when she is intruding her egg 

 and doing whatever is needful to secure its accept- 

 ance. 



* Dresser's Birds, ad loc. 



