86 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
seeing a Cuckoo under circumstances which left no doubt upon my mind 
that she was guilty. I was lying concealed in a boggy bit of ground 
watching for a Water Rail, when a Cuckoo flew out of a bush near by, and 
settled upon a post and rail which filled up a gap in the hedge. Not being 
on the alert for proof of egg-eating, I did not pay particular attention to 
the Cuckoo, and could not say whether or no she carried an egg with her ; 
but on visiting the spot afterwards I certainly did find the recently broken 
shell and part of the albumen of a Blackbird’s egg upon the top of the post 
where she had been sitting, and in the bush from whence she came was a 
Blackbird’s nest containing three fresh eggs. Had a closer watch been 
kept upon the Cuckoo no doubt I should actually have witnessed her eat 
the egg, and perhaps also carry it from the nest; but unfortunately the 
chance was missed, and such opportunities do not recur every day. 
Another trait in the habits of the Cuckoo, which seems sometimes to 
be doubted, is that she lays her egg upon the ground, and afterwards 
deposits it with her bill in the nest which she has chosen; but upon our 
Border moors, where the Meadow Pipit, or ‘‘ Cheeper,” as it is called, is by 
far the most frequent foster-parent to the young Cuckoo, the fact has long 
been known to that most observant race of men, the hill-shepherds. I have 
indeed frequently heard it asserted by these men that if you see a Cuckoo 
being closely pressed by a Cheeper, which seems particularly angry, while 
the Cuckoo flies silently and low, you may be certain that she has an egg 
in her mouth, and is seeking an opportunity of placing it in the Pipit’s nest. 
The natural inference drawn is that the Pipit hopes by her attack to make 
the Cuckoo drop or break her egg. Should the latter succeed in safely de- 
positing the egg in the nest, no further molestation is offered her; while 
it is said that she frequently utters her chattering notes as she flies off, as 
though chuckling to herself over her success. 
The following rhyme is also well known upon the Borders, though 
perhaps scarcely so often heard as the two above quoted :— 
** The Cuckoo comes in mid March, 
And cucks in mid Aprill ; 
And gangs her ways at Lammas-tide, 
When the corn begins to fill.” 
March is so exceptionally early for the arrival of the Cuckoo that it is 
curious to find that month so often alluded to in these old rhymes, par- 
ticularly in north-country ones. In very forward springs, however, the 
always welcome notes have been heard in Northumberland by the first week 
in April, and, in 1896, so early as March 25th; while in that year a Cuckoo 
was recorded as having been heard in Berwickshire on Feb. 20th—“a 
unique record for Scotland”—and apparently believed in ! 
