The Cuckoo and Hedge-Sparrow 127 



observation. Was there any kind of feeling that this par- 

 ticular wagtail was more likely to take care of the offspring 

 than others ? 



I doubt the cuckoo's alleged total indifference to her 

 young. They certainly linger in the neighbourhood of the 

 nests which they have selected to deposit their eggs in. 

 On another occasion a cuckoo used a wagtail's nest in a 

 different part of the garden here — in some ivy that had 

 grown round the decaying stump of an old fir tree. This 

 bird was watched, but not interfered with ; she came 

 repeatedly, and was seen on the nest, and the egg observed. 

 Afterwards a cuckoo sang continuously day after day on 

 an ash tree close to the garden. 



Lower down in the ivy, behind the logs of timber 

 under the casement, the hedge-sparrow builds every year ; 

 and on the wood itself where the trunks formed a little 

 recess was a robin's nest. The hedge-sparrow, unlike his 

 noisy namesake, is one of the quietest of birds : he slips 

 about in the hedges and bushes all round the garden so 

 quietly and unobtrusively that unless you watch carefully 

 you will not see him. Yet he does not seem shy, and if 

 you sit still will come along the hawthorn within a yard. 



In the thatch — under the eaves of the cellar, which are 

 not more than four feet from the ground and come up to 

 the ivy of the gable — the wren has a nest. Some birds 

 seem always to make their nests in one particular kind of 

 way, and generally in the same kind of tree or bush ; 

 robins, house-sparrows, and starlings, on the other hand, 

 adjust their nests to all sorts of places. 



The window of a room in which I used to sleep over- 

 looked the orchard, and there was a pear tree trained 

 against the wall, some of the boughs of which came up to 

 the window-sill. This pear tree acted as a ladder, up 



