Birds. 



8165 



observing it which have fallen to my lot, it may not be considered 

 out of place for me here to record some of the results of my expe- 

 rience ; and first I will relate two incidents which appear to bear 

 strongly upon the contested point. 



One morning early in June, 1855, as I was " birdsnesting " at 

 Tan-y-Bwlch, in North Wales, I was accosted by a lad belonging to 

 a neighbouring village, who greatly excited my curiosity by the 

 announcement that he had just shot a hawk carrying a lark's egg in 

 its throat, and thereupon he produced — not a hawk, but a fine speci- 

 men of a female cuckoo. He stated that the egg had dropped from 

 the throat of the bird as he laid it upon the ground, after having 

 carried it for some distance ; and at my request he led me to a spot 

 beside a footpath, where, after a slight search, we found a broken 

 cuckoo's egg, and where, in still further corroboration of his story, I 

 noticed the disturbed appearance of the grass upon which he had 

 been resting. Now, although it must be confessed that the lad was 

 by no means celebrated for his adherence to the truth when a false- 

 hood would better serve his purpose, yet it would be unreasonable to 

 suppose that in the present instance the main facts were incorrectly 

 stated ; however, as a still further test, I concealed my knowledge of 

 the species of the bird, and then, after having conversed for some 

 time upon other subjects, carelessly inquired what a cuckoo was like, 

 and whether he had ever shot one. His reply convinced me that, 

 however accurate his knowledge of game birds might be, he was 

 utterly unaware of the fact that he was at that moment carrying a 

 cuckoo in his hand. As nearly as could be ascertained, the bird was 

 killed at about eleven o'clock in the morning. In the stomach were 

 a few caterpillars and small beetles, and the ovary contained several 

 eggs in various stages of advancement towards maturity, but none 

 were perfect. 



The second instance referred to took place in the summer of 1860, 

 near Falkirk. I was walking beside a thick hedge about five o'clock 

 in the afternoon, when a female cuckoo flew out of some brambles 

 and tangled weeds at the bottom, but immediately fell to the walking- 

 stick gun of a friend of mine who accompanied me, but who, I am 

 desired to observe, was at the moment ignorant of the species to 

 which the poor bird belonged. We hastened up, and within an inch 

 of the bird's bill we found its egg, uninjured and perfectly fresh. I. 

 at once expressed my joy at having at length detected a cuckoo in 

 the very act of carrying its egg in its bill ; but here my friend very 

 reasonably observed, that although the evidence was strongly in 



