570 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



she was a Cuckoo with a special predilection for Yellow Wagtails' 

 nests, and nothing else would suit her. 



Cuckoos would probably be less likely to meddle with Haw- 

 finches' eggs than those of most birds, because the nest of the 

 Hawfinch is very rarely selected by them to lay in. Jays and 

 Jackdaws were more probably the thieves which robbed the thirty- 

 two nests alluded to by Mr. Calvert, assisted perhaps in their 

 depredations by mice, which are very destructive little pests. 



Mr. P. N. Emerson, in his 'Birds, Beasts, and Fishes of 

 the Norfolk Broadland' (1895), writes: — "The evidence I have 

 collected from [Norfolk] fenmen and others quite satisfies me 

 that the Cuckoo does suck eggs ; and, though I have never caught 

 him, I have found eggs sucked that were whole before the 



Cuckoo hopped about them I have opened several 



Cuckoos' crops at the beginning of the season, and have upon 

 some occasions found a yellowish substance which looked to 

 me like nothing but egg." With this quotation I leave the 

 much vexed question to those who have better opportunities than 

 I have now of watching this inveterate nest-hunter. 



We have had two nests this year with two Cuckoos in each ; 

 one belonged to a Pied Wagtail, and the other to a Spotted Fly- 

 catcher, but from what I can learn one Cuckoo only was reared 

 in each nest. 





