THE CUCKOO. 221 



It is not unusual, soon after their arrival, to see 

 a couple of male birds chasing a hen. The first 

 eggs are seldom laid before the middle of May, 

 or not until the birds have been here three weeks 

 or a month. The egg, which is about equal in 

 size to that of the Skylark, is very small, con- 

 sidering the bulk of the bird which lays it. It 

 is white, closely freckled over with grey, or 

 sometimes reddish brown, and generally has a 

 few darker specks at the larger end. Instead 

 of building a nest for itself, the Cuckoo deposits 

 its eggs singly, and at intervals of a few days, 

 in the nests of a variety of other birds, and 

 leaves them to be hatched out, and the young 

 reared, by the foster parents. 



The nests in which the Cuckoo's eggs are 

 most frequently deposited are those of the 

 Hedge Sparrow, Meadow Pipit, Pied Wagtail, 

 and Reed Warbler, but according to Dr. Thie- 

 nemann, a great authority on the subject of 

 European birds' eggs, they have also been 

 found in the nests of the following very different 

 species : — 



