20 
THE CUCKOO’S SECRET 
in an adjoining orchard about ioo yards from where 
the cock Meadow Pipit was continually settling. 
At length, the Cuckoo dropped down into the 
bracken and gorse, apparently alongside the Pipit. 
In a few moments the Cuckoo rose and, pursued 
by the Meadow Pipit, flew away across the common. 
Then the Pipit returned, and on that day and the 
next showed much concern whenever I approached. 
Although I hunted over the ground again and again, 
I persistently failed to find the nest before flushing 
the sitting bird this day (30th). It was about 
6 p.m. on the previous occasion when I saw the 
Cuckoo fly down to the ground, and, in the light 
of subsequent experience, I have little doubt that 
she then laid her egg. 
At this early date in my investigations I began 
to see a probable solution of the puzzle of how it 
comes about that just when a Cuckoo wants to lay 
she finds a nest in a fitting condition to receive her 
egg. It is obvious that there is only a period of a 
few days when any nest is a suitable receptacle for 
a Cuckoo’s egg, since it is only exceptionally that a 
Cuckoo will make use of a nest in which the eggs 
are already undergoing incubation. From my 
observations on Cuckoos A and B during this 
season I formed the theory that it is the Cuckoo’s 
