Mr. Cochratie's Case reverses Lord Lilford's. 265 



Lord Lilford, seems to confirm this sentence of 

 Father Gerard : 



" One argument to the contrary nature has ex- 

 hibited in the cuckoo, which, reared in the society of 

 strangers and with their notes in its ear, yet sticks 

 unfalteringly to the tune, which only by instinct can 

 he recognise for his own." '■= 



For later eggs deposited, as many eggs are in the 

 nests of birds in later June, even in later July, it is 

 impossible that the parent notes could ever have 

 been heard by those young birds, for they would not 

 be hatched till after the old birds had become silent, 

 if they had not departed. 



In Mr. Cochrane's case, then, we have a complete 

 reversal of Lord Lilford's experience all along the 

 line, as we may say, and must hold our decision in 

 reserve till we have more evidence. 



And we may therefore meantime find some ground 

 for agreeing with Mr. Hudson : 



" It is possible to believe that, while many singing 

 birds do learn their songs and acquire a greater pro- 

 ficiency in them from hearing the adults, in other 

 species the song comes instinctively and is, like other 

 instincts and habits, purely an ' inherited memory.' "t 



We have record from another good authority of a 

 third cuckoo kept in confinement, which lived over 

 one year, and in this case, though there were decided 

 efforts to make the cry "cuckoo," it never really got 

 beyond the first syllable "cue," and sometimes even 

 failed to render that with any degree of distinctness. 



The matter can only be settled by careful experi- 



* Science and Romance, p. 23. 

 t Naturalist in La Plata, p. 257. 



