THE CUCKOO. 51 
parents for many generations must have been reared by the same species, unless 
indeed it be proved that the male bird in no way influences the colouring of the 
eggs laid by its progeny. 
In his ‘“ Birds of Europe” Mr. H. Dresser, with the assistance of Mr. E. 
Bidwell, has given a list of 92 species in whose nest the egg of our Cuckoo has 
been obtained, which includes the following British birds:—Magpie, Jay, Great 
Grey Shrike, Lesser Grey Shrike, Red-backed Shrike, Spotted Flycatcher, Song- 
Thrush, Blackbird, Ring Ouzel,* Wheatear, Stonechat, Whinchat, Redstart, Black 
Redstart, Nightingale, Bluethroat, Robin, Hedge-Sparrow, Reed Warbler, Sedge 
Warbler, Marsh Warbler, Aquatic Warbler, Icterine Warbler, Grasshopper Warbler, 
Dartford Warbler, Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Chiff-chaff, Blackcap, Barred 
Warbler, Wood Warbler, Willow Warbler, Gold-crest, Fire-crest, Wren, Creeper, 
Great Tit, Pied Wagtail, White Wagtail, Grey Wagtail, Blue-headed Wagtail, 
Yellow Wagtail, Tree Pipit, Meadow Pipit, Tawny Pipit, Rock Pipit, Richard’s 
Pipit, Sky-Lark, Wood-Lark, Crested Lark, Short-toed Lark, Reed Bunting, Corn 
Bunting, Yellow Bunting, Cirl Bunting, Ortolan Bunting, Chaffinch, Brambling, 
House-Sparrow, Tree-Sparrow, Greenfinch, Hawfinch, Serin, Mealy Redpoll, Linnet, 
Swallow, Wood-Pigeon, Stock-Dove, Little Grebe. That many of these birds would 
never rear the young bird is certain, and that some would not try is equally 
certain; but when a Cuckoo is hard up for a home in which to deposit an egg, 
I have known her to place it in an unfinished Linnet’s nest, which was promptly 
deserted by the owners, for I left the egg cv sctu for three days to see what they 
would do. 
When a Cuckoo lays its egg in the nest of a smaller bird, the offspring of 
the foster-parents are doomed; either the eggs are in part or entirely ejected by 
the parent Cuckoo, or possibly in some cases by their own parents; if hatched 
they are ejected (as first recorded by Dr. Jenner in 1788, subsequently supported 
by the evidence of other observers) by the newly hatched Cuckoo; or, if too large 
and strong for even this sturdy little ruffian, are generally crushed to death against 
the sides of the nest by the rapid growth of that voracious bird; as I observed 
in the case of a Cuckoo reared in the nest of a Song-Thrush (‘ Zoologist,” 1877, 
p- 300). When two Cuckoo’s eggs are deposited in the same nest, the stronger, 
sooner or later, ejects the weaker bird. 
Various theories have been formed to account for the parasitical habit of the 
Cuckoo, that favoured by Seebohm being that the female being the prepotent sex 
* Mr. W. Ruskin Butterfield informs me that some years ago he and his brother found the egg in the 
nest of this species: he is of opinion that the Titlark is the favourite foster-parent of the Cuckoo, but although 
this may be the case in Sussex, it is certainly not the case in Kent. Mr. Butterfield says he has twice obtained 
it from nests of the Robin containing whife Robin’s eggs; the Cuckoo’s eggs being normal. 
