222 Mr. W. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 



of .July, and with the exception of one or two, which were smaller 

 than the rest, taking their departure at that time. It is not stated 

 whether they were adult or immature bird.s, and the time mentioned 

 is between the periods of departure of the old and young ; but from 

 one or two remarks made, the inference is, that the latter are alluded 

 to. My only note upon migration is in connexion with the same 

 county ; an adult bird having been shot at the migratory period a 

 few years ago when flying singly and in a southerly direction over 

 the sea, about two miles off Dundrum. 



The singular economy of the cuckoo in depositing its eggs in the 

 nests of other birds has been very fully treated of, from personal 

 observation, by the celebrated Dr. Jenner*, Mr. Blackwallf. Mr. 

 Weir X, and others. I have not anything novel to offer on the sub- 

 ject, but will introduce a few observations made in Ireland. In the 

 north of the island, as in Scotland §, the nest of the titlark (Anthus 

 pratensis) seems generally to be the receptacle of the cuckoo's egg. 

 George Ensor, Esq., of Ardress, county of Armagh, in a communi- 

 cation to the 'Magazine of Natural History' (vol. vi. p. 83), mentions 

 a tenant's son having taken home a young cuckoo from a titlark's 

 nest. " Two wrens who had a nest with eight eggs in the eaves, 

 and just above the window fronting the cage in which the cuckoo 

 was placed, made their way through a broken pane, and continued 

 to feed it for some time." The cuckoo was at length taken away, 

 when " the wrens repaired to their own nest, and brought out the 

 eggs that had been laid :" — it is not stated how long they were ab- 

 sent from it. At Rockport, near Belfast, it was remarked, that 

 when a young cuckoo had attained such a size that its foster- 

 parents could not reach up food to it, they alighted on its back, and 

 thus fed it. This proceeding was repeatedly observed from the 

 windows of the house near to which the nest was situated. The 

 cuckoo is occasionally heard to call through the night, w T hen it is 

 fine, though there may be no moonlight. When lying awake on a 

 dark morning (May 8), I once noted its call to commence at half- 

 past three o'clock. 



In April 1834 I made the following communication to the Zoolo- 

 gical Society of London : — 



" May 28, 1833. On examination of three cuckoos today, which 

 were killed in the counties of Tyrone and Antrim within the last 

 week, I found them all to be in different states of plumage. One 

 was mature ; — another (a female) exhibited on the sides of the neck 

 and breast the reddish-coloured markings of the young bird, the 

 remainder of the plumage being that of maturity ; — the third speci- 

 men had reddish markings disposed entirely over it, much resembling 

 the plumage described by M. Temminck as assumed by ' les jeunes 

 tels qu'ils emigrent en automne ' (vol. i. p. 383), but having a 

 greater proportion of red, especially on the tail-coverts, than is spe- 

 cified in his description of the bird at that age. This individual 

 proved on dissection to be a female, and did not contain any eggs 



* Philosophical Transactions, vol. Ixxviii. f Researches in Zoology. 

 X Macgillivray's British Birds, vol. iii. § Jardine, Macgillivray. 



