OBSERVATIONS ON A YOUNG CUCKOO. 165 



when whistled to, it gradually unfolded its long, thin, 

 trembling neck, and opened, in expectation of food, a fairly 

 capacious mouth, which was pale yellow without any spots 

 on the palate. Its skin was everywhere creased and wrinkled, 

 and rather shiny, and it had no hollow in the back. Having 

 made these observations I quickly withdrew, lest the Accentor 

 should forsake her nest. 



3rd, 



— 7.15 a.m. 



Accentor on the 



nest. 





J 



7.45 a.m. 



>> )> 





, but her position 

 changed. 





8.15 a.m. 



5) 5> 





Changed again. 





8.45 a.m. 



JJ >> 





j> 





10 a.m. 



J J J> 





>> 





12 a.m. 



5> }> 





>> 



At each visit the Accentor was found to have changed her 

 position to the left ; perhaps these repeated changes were to 

 distribute the warmth of her body more equally. On the last 

 visit her body was bunched up in rather a curious way, but 

 what this meant I do not know. 



12.30 p.m. For the first time the Accentor had volun- 

 tarily left her nest, and, to my surprise, the young Cuckoo 

 was its only occupant. Both the young Accentors lay 

 dead on its edge side by side, but they had evidently been 

 dead only a short time, I am disposed to think not half 

 an hour. 

 I replaced one of the Accentors in the nest, and watched five 

 minutes, but the young Cuckoo, though very restless, made no 

 attempt to eject it, although it felt it with its wings. The 

 Accentor's nest was rather a deep one, and this and the helpless- 

 ness of the young Cuckoo, and the fact that the depression in its 

 back was only just perceptible, made me wonder if it was the 

 old Accentors which had ejected their own young ; but perhaps 

 not, for the nestling Cuckoos so carefully watched by Dr. Jenner 

 (Phil. Trans. E. S. 1788, p. 225), and Mr. J. Hancock (Trans. 

 North, and Dur. N. H. S. viii. p. 210) ejected young Accentors 

 when they were less than twenty-four hours old in their presence, 

 and my Cuckoo was already at least thirty-two hours. It is 

 clear therefore that it had the power to have done it. Dr. Jenner 



