CUCKOO. 
103 
1888. Mr. C. K. Morris, of Oakham, informs me that one was shot at Ketton, on 
the evening of 30th Aug., 1888, by Mr. H. W. Betts. 
SuB-OKDER COCCYGES. 
Family CUCULID^. 
CUCKOO. Ctictd^is canoi'us, Linnteus. 
A summer migrant, generally distributed, and laying its eggs in other 
birds’ nests so close to Leicester as at Aylestone and Knighton. The Rev. A. 
^latthews wrote in ‘ The Zoologist,’ January, 1885, p. 25, relative to an immature 
male found on 12th July, apparently killed by flying against a tent-rope in the 
garden, and he argues therefrom that the bird was migrating dming the night. 
With all deference to my friend’s opinion, I would contend that the date is 
early for migration (a young bird was killed with a stone at “ Forest Rock,” 
8th August, 1882) ; and, secondly, that there is no evidence that it was not 
killed in the early morning during ordinary flight, as the late Mr. R. Widdowson 
wrote to me: — “Last spring (1883) I had four adults brought to me in one 
week, all killed by flying against windows.” Harley observed it, in 1854, so 
late as the 6th September. 
Mr. Macaulay reports: — “April, 1881, Cuckoo in Wagtail’s nest at 
Saddington.” Mr. Davenport writes : — “ Found the nest of a Sedge- Warbler, 
containing two eggs, in a small spinney near Ashlands on June 22nd, 1883. 
Just afterwards a Cuckoo flew and settled on the nest, and remained there quite 
fifteen minutes, and, when she flew off again, the httle nest was quite flattened 
out, and her egg deposited by the side of the two belonging to the Sedge- Warbler. 
In 1884 the bird — I assume it to be the same — repaired again to the same little 
spinney, laid a similarly marked egg in another Sedge-Warbler’s nest close to 
the old spot, and on this occasion the date was May 24. I possess both eggs, 
and they cannot be told apart. Two more Cuckoo’s eggs from the same locality 
have come into my collection since 1884, and they are precisely similar to the 
first two I obtained.” Mr. Ingram writes : — “ Becoming more numerous ; the 
Wagtail, its favourite foster-mother, often rears the young in the precincts of 
the garden at Belvoir,” and John Ryder, lodge-keeper at Belvoir Castle, informed 
me that, in the spring of 1884, a Cuckoo laid an egg in a Robin’s nest built in 
a bank by the lodge, and the young Cuckoo was reared by the Robins. On 
28th June, 1883, I went to see a young Cuckoo in a Hedge-Sparrow’s nest, 
built in some sticks amidst a thick growth of nettles and thistles, not more 
than twenty yards from the back door of Mr. Wm. Lander’s farm-house at 
Knighton. The young usurper, at my approach, ruffled its feathers and drew 
back its head, and then darted out its neck with the most threatening gestures, 
uttering at the same time a sharp hiss ; indeed, its actions, though ludicrous 
