Peacock: The Cuckoo — A Study. 



herbage, where caterpillars, its usual food, are most plentiful ; 

 and so is not infrequently flushed from among- the gooseberry 

 bushes in gardens during - the early morning - hours when men 

 are just astir. At times it may be seen flitting about in the 

 open fields, but seldom, and then only in the early spring. For 

 all the little birds of the more open country are soon up and on 

 the defensive, twittering in dismay as they hunt and pursue it 

 as though it were a Hawk, 'to which, indeed, its mode of 

 flight, homely grey vesture, and equivocal shape, give it an 

 undoubted resemblance.' This mistake is not confined to birds 

 alone. A gamekeeper once remarked : — ' The Cuckoo turns 

 into a Hawk in winter'; and when a mild look of surprise 

 passed over the face of his hearer, he added the clinching 

 question: — 'Leastways what becomes of the Cuckoos?' 



The breeding habits of the Cuckoo are its most singular 

 peculiarity. Some of them we are fully acquainted with, at 

 others we can merely guess as yet. The first eggs are laid in 

 May. The hen chooses the nest of some insectivorous bird to 

 receive each one, instead of making a nest of her own. The 

 Pied Wagtail, Hedge Sparrow, and Tit-Lark are the favourites 

 in England. In Scotland, according to one writer, always the 

 latter bird. In Lincolnshire I had never heard of it, excepting 

 in the nests of the Pied Wagtail or its congener the Grey 

 Wagtail (J/, melanope Pallas), which bred not infrequently on 

 Bottesford Beck thirty years ago, and since in other places, as 

 Mr. Cordeaux has proved. But after delivering this lecture at 

 Lincoln some years ago, Mrs. Petchel sent me a message by 

 our common friend Mr. Sneath, to say that she once had a 

 Cuckoo hatched out in a Robin's nest in her garden in the heart 

 of the city. It looks as if the nest is a mere case of handiness 

 and convenience, if one of a favourite species is not known at 

 the time ; as a matter of fact, a Cuckoo's egg has been found 

 in a Rook's nest. I formerly believed that the bird placed her 

 egg in every case in the chosen nest in the way 1 have described 

 with her bill, and that from frequently being seen in the act of 

 transporting her own egg to a previously chosen nest, she has 

 been accused of stealing those of the victims of her trickery to 

 give 'lucid intonation and unfettered utterance to her voice,' or 

 as the old song of my childhood's days says 



The Cuckoo is a merry bird ; 



She sings as she flies ; 

 She brings us good tidings 



And tells us no lies. 



1900 April 



