CUCKOO-YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. 121 
whinchats, all of which have been made use of in this 
county. 
Two cuckoo's eggs are not unfrequently found in one 
nest, and I have found an egg in such nests as wrens', 
willow-warblers', and chiffchafifs', in which it was quite im- 
possible for the cuckoo to have laid them, and in one 
instance in a pied wagtail's nest, built in such a position in 
a heap of iron bars that the cuckoo could only have reached 
it with its head. In such nests the eggs must have been 
deposited with the beak ; indeed, I once disturbed a cuckoo 
from the middle of a road, which, before flying off, picked 
up what appeared to be an egg and carried it off with her. 
No doubt the old idea that she sucks little birds' eggs is to 
be explained by this habit of taking her own egg into her 
mouth on such occasions (Munn). 
The ancient belief that cuckoos turn into hawks still 
exists in many parts of the county. 
Gen us — Coccyzus. 
117. Coccyzus americanus, Yellow-billed Cuckoo. 
A very rare accidental visitor from America. 
We have every reason to accept the two following 
records as genuine. 
In the "Zoologist" of 1896, Mr. G. W. Smith wrote 
from Winchester College that Mr. Chalkley had pointed 
out to him a record of this bird in an Isle of Wight 
newspaper. 
In March, 1897, he sent to the " Zoologist" the following 
notes, kindly communicated by Mr. Kent, who discovered 
the bird, and Mr. Smith, the taxidermist of Newport, who 
