Peacock : The Cuckoo — A Study. 



I know every detail of this case, and there can be no getting 

 over the evidence. It has only confirmed what I believed to be 

 partly true before, that to a certain extent the Cuckoo does watch 

 over its young. Finally, Mr. T. R. Whitaker, of Rainworth, 

 Notts, writes : — 



We have a Garden Warbler's nest in a currant tree close to the house, 

 in which were three good eggs and one bad. A Cuckoo turned the three 

 good ones out of the nest and deposited her egg with the bad one. The 

 three eggs were nearly hatching when this occurred. 

 The last touch of confirmation was added by Mr. G. Bazeley, 

 naturalist, Horsemarket, Northampton, who wrote : — 



My wife and I were resting in the evening beneath an ash tree while my 

 little soa was engaged in gathering bluebells ; close by I had picked up the 

 shell of a Partridge's eg'g, and, while examining it, a Cuckoo was heard in 

 the tree above. Almost directly another shell fell from the branches, and 

 the bird flew away, returning in a few minutes with an egg, the shell of 

 which soon dropped to the ground. This last I noticed still contained a lot 

 of white. Anyone who has reared a young- Cuckoo would not be surprised 

 at the bird making an evening meal off the number of eggs stated, but 

 their contents might have been shared with a mate ; in such a case these 

 would have been taken into the throat and the bird would then have fed its 

 mate. I was not able to watch where the Cuckoo went to each time, but 

 in an adjacent field I noticed several Partridges behaving in an excited 

 way, the pairs all racing each other about, and I judged these were the 

 birds which had been disturbed. Upon leaving the spot I met Mr. Beesley, 

 of the Mill, St. James' End, Northampton, and he at once asked me the 

 name of an egg-shell he had found ; it was another Partridge's egg opened 

 in a similar way to those I had seen. Altogether fourteen were discovered. 

 This all occurred on the estate beloirging to General Sotheby, near Earls 

 Rat tun, and on 25th May 1899. I saw Mr. Smith, the gentleman's game- 

 keeper, the next day, and related the incident to him. 



In very many cases the Cuckoo chooses a nest, especiallv 

 that of the Wagtail, so situated that it would be quite im- 

 possible for her to place the egg in it by any other means than 

 those she uses. I have understood since, though I had no idea 

 of it at the time,* that I was the first person in this country that 

 ever observed the bird in the act, but of late years more than 

 one careful watcher has seen it. I remember one case, too, 

 where the opening was so small, it was in a Wagtail's nest in 

 a rubble wall, that the half-grown bird could not escape from 

 the nest hole till a labourer, overhearing its cries, set it free, 

 after fetching me to see the position it was found in. The 

 Cuckoo is fond of searching an ivied wall, when her little bird 

 enemies will let her, or the fruit trees nailed to brickwork, for 

 a nest to her liking in which to deposit her egg. il ma\ be seen 



* The labouring-men about my home having 1 told me ibis w is the way 

 the bird generally deposited its eggs. 

 1900 April 3. 



