76 OBSERVATIONS ON THE CUCKOO. 
ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE Cuckoo. 
In the ‘ Gentleman’s Magazine’ for April 1806, 
two instances are recorded of young Cuckoos having 
been occasionally fed by large numbers of birds of 
the same species as their foster-parents. It is stated 
that one of these nestlings was sometimes supplied 
with nourishment by upwards of twenty. Titlarks, and 
that the other frequently received similar attentions 
from forty-eight Wagtails. From these facts the 
writer of the article concludes that birds which have 
the care of young Cuckoos are not always able to 
provide them with a sufficiency of food, and that on 
such occasions they procure the assistance of their 
neighbours of the same kind as themselves. 
Colonel Montagu, in the Supplement to the ‘ Orni- 
thological Dictionary,’ calls in question the accuracy 
of these observations, and conjectures that the object 
of birds in thus assembling about nestling Cuckoos is 
not to administer to their necessities, but to assault 
and persecute them. 
I have been favoured with a communication from 
Mr. Eaton, of York, which places the subject under 
consideration in a somewhat different light from that 
in which it has been viewed by any preceding orni- 
thologist. Mr. Eaton informs me that in the summer 
of 1827 Captain Porter, who resides near the city of 
York, discovered a Hedge-Warbler’s nest in his 
