THE BEHAVIOUR OF A NESTLING CUCKOO. 33 



This I repeated several times, until the Cuckoo had pushed the 

 Whinchat at least three inches from the rim of the nest. I 

 naturally wondered whether the Cuckoo would find its way back 

 into the nest. This it did, by stretching out its neck to its 

 utmost limit, which is saying a deal, towards the nest, accom- 

 panied by two or three steps forward, and then fell rather 

 clumsily into the nest. Mr. Parkin asked me whether I had 

 seen the Cuckoo void any excreta, as information had been given 

 him which seemed to negative this idea. However, to-day I 

 saw the Cuckoo twice within a few hours part with faeces, but 

 not in such large quantities as were voided by the young Whin- 

 chat. I left the nest to go to one of my sons, who resides near 

 Keighley. On my way I called to see a friend who lives at 

 Morton, and, being interested in birds, he mentioned a friend 

 who took the photo of the nest of the Eing-Ousel containing a 

 young Cuckoo, reported by me in the ' Zoologist ' for 1913, 

 p. 391, after which I told him I had only recently left the nest 

 of a Titlark containing a young Cuckoo. He expressed a strong 

 wish that I would show his friend the nest, since he very badly 

 wanted a photo of a young Cuckoo — a request I could not deny ; 

 so, instead of seeing my son, I was soon on my way back to 

 Baildon Moor. On our way my friend showed me the nest of 

 a Missel-Thrush, built in a very unusual situation — nearly on 

 the top of an exposed wall, near the caretaker's house, at a 

 reservoir. 



On June 14th I went with one of my sons to the nest of the 

 Titlark, and we found both the Pipit and egg outside the nest. 

 On putting the young Whinchat into the nest once more, the 

 Cuckoo did not manifest such a keen desire to hoist it from the 

 nest, but on pressing the Whinchat against the Cuckoo, the latter 

 heaved the Whinchat to the top of the nest, and, by repeating 

 the finesse adopted the previous day, I induced the Cuckoo to 

 push back the Whinchat three or four inches from the rim of the 

 nest. On visiting the nest again some time later the Cuckoo 

 could not be induced to throw out the Whinchat. The desire for 

 exclusive possession of the nest was becoming gradually weaker. 

 The last of the three Pipits I found quite dead to-day, it having 

 lived about four days. It could not, however, have lived this 

 length of time except by artificial means ; it must have been 



Zool. 4th ser., vol. XX., January, J9J6. ? 



