Anxious about Young ? g^ 



" Once more I sought for the wagtail's nest, and 

 again failed. I would fain ascertain for a fact whether 

 or not the custom of the cuckoo is to visit its eggs and 

 young periodically, and if so, how often. 



" I knew that it was said the physical conformation 

 of the cuckoo incapacitates it from the work of incuba- 

 tion, and that, consequently, its maternal instinct 

 teaches it to deposit its eggs to be hatched in the nest 

 of other birds. According to my idea, it would seem 

 a painful blot on the cuckoo if it did not feel anxious 

 for the welfare of its young, and manifest its watchful- 

 ness and care by frequent visits. I would much 

 rather believe that the cuckoo pays daily visits to its 

 eggs and young ; and when they are all fledged, 

 gathers them, though reared in different homes, into 

 one family, and then takes them, under its fostering 

 care, to distant lands." 



This we know well now the cuckoo does not do. 

 When this observer wrote it was not so well estab- 

 lished as it is now that the parent cuckoos migrate 

 weeks before the young birds — mainly, no doubt, 

 because of facts connected with moulting. 



We have seen that Mr. J. E. Gray is firm in his 

 conviction, based on observations of his own, that the 

 cuckoo does not uniformly desert her offspring, but on 

 the contrary, continues in the precincts where the 

 eggs are deposited, and, in all probabihty, takes the 

 young under her protection when they are sufficiently 

 fledged to leave the nest. If, however, the cuckoo 

 lays four or five eggs, or even more, this would be 

 difficult — far more difficult than with some of the 

 foreign varieties, which lay the whole lot in one nest. 



From the evidence of close observers and expert 



