i8 
THE CUCKOO'S SECRET 
an egg in the nest. The next morning I visited it 
and removed a second Meadow Pipit’s egg which 
had been laid with the two substituted eggs. 
I was unable to get to the common again until 
the 21st, when I went straight to this nest. My 
anticipations were realised to the full, for there was 
A 7 with only one of the substituted eggs. The 
Meadow Pipit had deserted. 
On June 22 I found another Meadow Pipit’s 
nest containing a lusty young Cuckoo, about six 
days old, almost certainly hatched from one of the 
earlier eggs laid by A, my favourite Cuckoo. That 
this is entitled to be called A 8 will be shown by 
collateral evidence as the story of this Cuckoo 
unfolds. This was a most interesting nest, inas- 
much as it gave one to wonder how that young 
Cuckoo ever managed to eject the rightful occu- 
pants. It was in a hole quite six inches deep, and 
even when the young interloper was almost ready 
to fly, its back was well beneath the surface of the 
ground. 
Later on the same afternoon I flushed a Meadow 
Pipit from her nest, in some bracken, containing 
one of her own eggs plus A 9 and B 2 . These eggs 
had been incubated about six days. 
Next day, June 23 , 1 spent many hours searching 
