OBSERVATIONS ON THE CUCKOO. 67 
for its unremitted exertions. This fact proves also 
how very late in the season Cuckoos’ eggs are occa- 
sionally laid. 
On the 30th of June, 1823, I took a young Cuckoo, 
which was hatched in a Titlark’s nest, on White Moss, 
on the 28th, seven days after old birds had quitted 
that neighbourhood ; and this nestling, while n my 
possession, afforded me an opportunity of contem- 
plating at leisure the entire process of ejecting young 
birds and eggs from the nest, so minutely and accu- 
rately described by Dr. Jenner. I observed that this 
bird, though so young, threw itself backwards with 
considerable force when any thing touched it unex- 
pectedly. It died on the 2nd of July, the fifth day 
after it was hatched, and then weighed 318 grains. 
Intelligent ornithologists have denied or doubted 
the capability of young Cuckoos to eject the progeny 
of their foster-parents from the nest until they are a 
week or ten days old, and have acquired the use of 
their eyes. This incredulity can only be accounted 
for on the supposition that such observers have failed 
carefully to investigate the early economy of this 
species, which I have shown not only establishes the 
fact called in question, but likewise renders evident 
the unreasonableness of hastily rejecting phenomena 
which are extraordinary or anomalous as unworthy 
of belief, and of relying too exclusively on analogical 
reasoning in natural history. 
Young Cuckoos are so very different from adults, 
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