262 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



HOW DOES THE CUCKOO CARRY HER EGG? 

 By A. H. Meiklejohn. 



On May L2th, while on the road between the villages of 

 Hamstreet and Woodchurch, in Kent, I had, to me, the unique 

 experience of seeing a Cuckoo in the very act of placing its egg 

 in the nest of a Robin. The facts are briefly as follows : — I 

 happened to be sitting down by the roadside watching a Wryneck 

 through my glasses, when a Cuckoo flew over my head, and, 

 turning sharply, alighted on a fence-rail about two hundred yards 

 down the road. From there she flew across and entered the 

 opposite hedge, which was raised on a bank covered with a thick 

 undergrowth of nettles, grass, &c. The Cuckoo had scarcely 

 disappeared before she again re- appeared with a small bird in 

 close pursuit, in which two or three Starlings, which evidently 

 had young in the farm-steading opposite, joined. At this moment 

 a man passing in a cart disturbed the Cuckoo, which, flying over 

 the hedge, alighted in the meadow beyond. Noticing the bird's 

 apparent disinclination to leave the place, I walked down the 

 road and lay quietly on the grass opposite to, and at a distance 

 of twelve yards (paced) from, the spot where the Cuckoo first 

 entered the hedge. I had not sat there for more than two 

 minutes when back came the Cuckoo, gliding along the hedge, 

 and finally alighting with a loud squawk exactly opposite me. 

 What struck me at once from this and many subsequent views 

 of the bird was the swollen appearance of her throat, which 

 half-way down showed a distinct protuberance, as might well 

 have been caused by an egg. I several times turned my glasses 

 on her, and at that short range I could plainly see the feathers 

 sticking out over the distended part of her gullet ; and, as my 

 subsequent remarks will show, it seems to me that this swelling 

 was caused by her egg. From the moment of alighting to the 

 close of this domestic tragedy, the Cuckoo was attacked with the 



