234 OUR SUMMER MIGRANTS. 



pose of experiment) for four or five days after. 

 This singular action was performed by insinuat- 

 ing itself under the Swallow, and with its rump 

 forcing it out of the nest with a sort of jerk. 

 Sometimes, indeed, it failed after much struggle, 

 by reason of the strength of the Swallow, which 

 was nearly full -feathered ; but, after a small res- 

 pite from the seeming fatigue, it renewed its 

 efforts, and seemed continually restless till it 

 succeeded." 



Mr. Blackwall, who published some observa- 

 tions on this point in the fourth volume of the 

 " Manchester Memoirs " (second series), says 

 that a nestling Cuckoo, while in his possession, 

 turned both young birds and eggs out of its 

 nest, in which he had placed them for the pur- 

 pose. He further observed " that this bird, 

 though so young, threw itself backwards with 

 considerable force when anything touched it 

 unexpectedly," an observation subsequently 

 confirmed by Mr. Durham Weir in a letter to 

 Macgillivray.^ 



1 " Hist. Brit. Birds," vol. iii. p. 128. 



