92 
THE CUCKOO’S SECRET 
Meanwhile Simmonds, junr., had arrived, and 
he was put to watch the Cuckoo in the pear tree 
while we set to work to find the nest of No. 8 pair, 
which had been seen with building material on 
the 19th. In less than ten minutes Simmonds 
announced that he had found the nest with two of 
the fosterer’s eggs and the overdue nineteenth egg 
of the Cuckoo. Without any question the Cuckoo, 
when taking up her position at 11.30 a.m. on the 
20th as though, as we thought, only to watch 
No. 8 pair, had really intended to lay. And when 
I heard her “ bubbling ” in the centre orchard at 
1 p.m. when I started to watch her, she had in all 
probability just returned from depositing her 
nineteenth egg in this nest scarcely 150 yards 
away. 
To resume with the Cuckoo’s actions to-day. 
At 11.30 she fled from the centre orchard but 
quickly returned to it as we passed near by to 
discover if she were already back. On seeing us 
she slipped away, and we heard her a few minutes 
later “ bubbling ” or “ laughing ” cheerily at the 
north end of the common. Very soon we saw her 
slipping back behind us, flying low into the centre 
orchard. Here, after preening herself briefly in 
her favourite perch in the pear tree near B, she 
