22 
THE CUCKOO S SECRET 
watched a pair of Meadow Pipits with grubs in 
their beaks. They were obviously anxious to go 
to their nest. In the case of Pipits the parent birds 
will seldom, when realising that they are under 
observation, fly directly to the nest but prefer 
rather to run to it from a distance, thus being lost 
to view in the herbage. However, I was able 
roughly to locate the whereabouts of the nest of 
this pair, and soon found it with a lively young 
Cuckoo about six days old. That this was A 11 I 
am now fully satisfied, as will be shown by the 
evidence which I shall adduce regarding the laying 
sequences of Cuckoos. I was annoyed at having 
previously missed this nest, for on June 23 I had 
seen what was undoubtedly the hen bird anxious to 
return to it, but having at the time, at a distance of 
about 70 yards away, only just disturbed another 
Meadow Pipit from her nest containing a Cuckoo’s 
egg, I wrongly concluded that the anxious hen 
Pipit owned the nest I had found. On several 
occasions I had passed within four yards of the nest 
which now held the young Cuckoo. 
The subjoined summary of the 1918 investiga- 
tions is based for the most part upon the foregoing 
notes. At the same time, it must be borne in mind 
that subsequent experiences give a stronger basis 
