BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 169 
that the blame for this apparently unnatural alienation of the 
parent from her offspring does not attach to the female, but is 
reaUy attributable to the male, who if he had his way would 
devour the eggs and drive his partner from the nest. To 
avoid this she conveys the egg out of his reach, and deposits 
It in the home of some other bird."* The fact that the 
Cuckoo IS at times seen carrying its egg in its bill to foist 
It on tosonie foster-parent has probably given rise to the belief 
that It destroys the eggs of other species. In this county the 
usual victim of its peculiar habit is the Meadow-Pipit 
rJ v-. «, T j""«t'ation ; but the Yellow Bunttog', 
w! T' f^I;^t'\^''^ ^-^^ ^l^" victimized 
We read m 1844 of a Grouse's nest found near Queensberry 
which contamed four Grouse's eggs, four Greyhen's eggs 
and one Cuckoo's egg.f We are subsequently told that the 
Greyhen s eggs were not hatched, but that those of the 
Grouse were as also the egg of the Cuckoo ! J James Shaw 
states, ' Although it delights to lay in a smaUer bird's 
nest, such as the Meadow-Pipit, I have got its ess in the 
nest of a Kestrel."§ Mr. E. Bidwell in iL gavef ijt tf 
one hundred and nineteen different species of Western 
Patoarctic bu-ds m whose nests Cuckoos had laid their 
eggs.ll and amongst these were mcluded such unsuitable 
birds as the Little Grebe and Green Woodpecker ; but it ij 
extremely improbable that the eggs are hatched when 
deposited in such unsuitable nests. 
Howard Saunders states, "From five to eight eggs 
are produced by the female in the season, and twelve to 
thirteen days are required for incubation."Tf 
Two young Cuckoos in one nest have more than once 
been recorded m the Transactiom of the Dumfriesshire and 
* Prov. Names Brit. Birds, 1885, p. 121. 
t Dumfries Courier, July 1st, 1844. 
t Op. cit., July 8th, 1844. 
§ A Country Schoolmaster, 1899, p. 289. 
II /6m, 1896, pp. 397-400. 
If Man. Brit. Birds, 1899, p. 288. 
