88 
THE CUCKOO’S SECRET 
At 3 p.m. I walked over to see if there were any 
sign of the Cuckoo at nest i 5 . I saw no sign of her, 
but flushed the pipit from her five eggs. Looking 
back, after I had walked away for some 250 yards, 
I noticed the Cuckoo circling round the nest and 
the pipit with her. Through my glasses I saw her 
circle three times and then alight. We approached 
to within 150 yards and watched across the dip 
between, but having seen nothing by 3.20 and 
hearing faint “ bubbling ” from the orchard on the 
north-east corner of the common, I thought I 
would just look at the nest again though not expect- 
ing that the egg had yet been laid. But it was there 
with the Pipit brooding it with only four eggs of 
her own. This eighteenth egg was therefore laid 
at 3.5 p.m., the earliest hitherto observed, and 
following 5.45 p.m. two days ago. Before this the 
earliest time noted was 3.10, when the twelfth egg 
was laid in the fourth nest of this same pair of 
Meadow Pipits. 
The Finding of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Eggs , 
June 22. 
First to glance at the spade-work performed 
since the 18th. On the 19th I observed No. 8 
pair of Meadow Pipits again building, but un- 
