CUCKOO. 
3 
this habit has entirely escaped my notice. It was recently asserted by a well-known sportsman in the < Field ’ 
that a keeper had watched a Cuckoo carry off the egg of a Pheasant from the nest, and also shot the thief 
while consuming the plunder. In order to inquire more fully into the matter, I requested the address of the 
man, and ascertained the facts to be as follows :-The keeper happened to have noticed a Pheasant’s nest 
from which several eggs had disappeared, and imagining that a shepherd boy was the culprit, concealed 
himself in a hedgerow to watch the spot; almost immediately a Cuckoo alighted in an oak tree and shortly 
after flew down and carried an egg some ten or a dozen yards on to the open ground. While in the act of 
sucking it the bird was shot, and close at hand were found the shells of the eggs previously stolen from the 
nest. In answer to a question as to the manner in which the egg was transported, my informant stated 
that the bird appeared to have pecked a hole in the shell before taking it in its bill. Two cases in which 
Cuckoos destroyed the eggs of Wood-Pigeons had also come under his observation, the eggs in both instances 
being sucked on the nests. It was only in the summer of 1881, when all the smaller birds were scarce, owin- 
to the wide-spread destruction caused by the severity of the winter, that the keeper had noticed Cuckoos 
attack the eggs of either Pheasants or Pigeons. This man evidently considered eggs the natural food of the 
Cuckoo small, perhaps, preferred, as a rule, but the larger taken without hesitation in the absence of the 
former. More recently he had shot a female Cuckoo which had settled on a rough bank by the nest of a 
Robin, and devoured in succession the contents of three eggs. He also informed me that he had seen a female 
Cuckoo sitting on the nest of a Spotted Flycatcher* where she remained for some time; this latter 
statement by no means corresponds with my own observations, which would lead to the belief that the egg 
is laid on the ground and then conveyed to the nest. 
If the Cuckoo is as destructive to eggs as its accusers declare, it appears strange that the depredations 
of a species so widely distributed have hitherto escaped my observation : I have also great doubts as to whether 
^ beak of a Cuckoo is sufficiently powerful to break the egg of a Pheasant. Many years ago I frequently 
assisted^the keepers in killing down Jays, Magpies, and Crows during spring in a densely wooded district in the 
east of Sussex. These robbers were captured in traps baited with the eggs of Thrushes or Pigeons ; but though 
Cuckoos were exceedingly numerous not a single bird was taken. 
Letters also appeared in the * Field ’ during the first quarter of 1882 asserting that the Cuckoo had been 
discovered to feed largely on the eggs of small birds. The only instance I ever met with in any manner 
corroborating this supposed habit occurred many years ago in Sussex. While passing a thick clump of holly 
bushes a Cuckoo blundered out within a yard, and on examining the spot I discovered the nest of a Hedge- 
Sparrow containing one egg, the shell of which exhibited two small slits or cuts apparently caused by the 
beak of a bird. On further search being made, another egg, entirely uninjured, was detected on the ground 
below the nest. 
Within the last few years I ascertained from the natives in a remote district of the eastern counties that 
the belief still exists that the Cuckoo turns into a Hawk durin" winter. 
* The Flycatcher was referred to as a “ nay-builder ” (a name not unfrequently bestowed on the Whitethroat in Sussex) ; there was, however, 
uo doubt as to the species, the nest being built on the limb of a trained fruit-tree, and the habits and plumage of the bird accurately described. 
