Captain Hutton's Facts. 221 



supplied by the old cuckoo, or, at all events, by one 

 of the same species. This I have myself repeatedly 

 witnessed, and I think it not improbable that others 

 of the cuckoo tribe may do the same thing ; for it 

 seems almost incredible that Trochalopterum linea- 

 tiiin, in whose nest the egg of C. intermedins is often 

 dropped could supply so voracious a bird after it had 

 left the nest, neither could the little hedge-sparrows 

 of England do so for young Cuculus canoriis. At 

 Jeripanee, below Mussoorie, I have seen the young 

 cuckoo sitting for hours together on a branch, waiting 

 for the return of the adult bird, which continued 

 every now and then to bring supplies of caterpillars 

 wherewith to satisfy the apparently insatiable appetite 

 of the nestling, until at last both would fly off to 

 another spot. To satisfy myself that it was really 

 this cuckoo that fed the young, I shot one in the very 

 act, and found it to be no other than our summer 

 visitant, Cuculus intermedins." '•' 



The large hawk - cuckoo of India (Hierococcyx 

 sparveroides), from Miss Cockburn's evidence, broods 

 its own eggs, taking for that purpose disused nests of 

 the common crow. 



Jerdon tells us that, in the case of the common 

 hawk-cuckoo of India (Hierococcyx varius), he has 

 on several occasions seen the old birds of Malacocerus 

 malabaricus and M. griseus feeding a young cuckoo, 

 which was following them about screaming. On one 

 occasion, at least, there were two or three young 

 Malacocerei in company, so that the young of this 

 species of cuckoo does not always eject the eggs or 

 young of its foster-parents from the nest. 



* Hume's Birds of India, ii, p. 383. 



