62 
THE CUCKOO’S SECRET 
The punctuality with which this tenth egg had 
been laid satisfied us that the ninth must have 
been laid on the afternoon of the 29th, so we re- 
newed the search for it with fresh energy. Within 
half an hour, my friend Mrs. Newton waved to me 
to come over, and sure enough she had found a 
nest of No. 7 pair (y 2 ) of Meadow Pipits with two 
eggs and one of the Cuckoo. 
This, then, was the ninth egg of the Cuckoo and 
evidently laid on the afternoon of the 29th, probably 
between 5 and 6 p.m. just before the two Cuckoos, 
the male calling, had come across to us before 
leaving for good that evening. On that date the 
fosterer’s nest would have contained one egg. We 
had not watched for the Cuckoo thereabouts, as 
we had not expected the nest to be so far advanced, 
having only restarted it four days previously, on 
May 25. 
Thus by the end of May Cuckoo A had already 
laid, and we had in safe keeping, the first ten eggs 
of her 1920 series. My hopes now ran high, not 
only of seeing in what circumstances she laid and 
placed her egg in the nest, but of beating the known 
record hitherto held by Dr. Eugene Rey, of Leipzig, 
of seventeen eggs (at the time I had been led to 
believe it to be twenty eggs) in one season from 
