98 THE CUCKOO’S SECRET 
From i p.m. until 4.30 we kept guard on the 
common, anxiously hoping to see something of the 
Cuckoo. As a matter of fact, a Cuckoo did fly 
across at 4.35, settled in the orchard on the east 
side and thence pottered along the hedgerow to 
another orchard, remaining for a quarter of an hour 
or so. I am not quite certain that this was a female 
Cuckoo, nor even if it were, that it was our particular 
bird, since its actions seemed so strange. Through- 
out the season I had never seen our Cuckoo take 
any interest in a hedgerow, or perch on railings as 
this bird did. But perhaps this unusual behaviour 
was due to the imminence of migration. In any 
case, this Cuckoo took no interest in that section of 
the common where nest 5 5 lay deserted, so when a 
heavy downpour set in we regarded things as 
hopeless and went off to tea. Late that evening 
I had to leave the neighbourhood, but resolved to 
return and spend one last afternoon watching to 
see if the Cuckoo put in an appearance. 
Thus at 1 p.m. on the 28th I reached the 
common, went straight to the deserted nest 5 s and, 
to my utmost satisfaction and surprise, found the 
Cuckoo’s twenty-first egg sitting up on its end, on 
the entrance side of the nest, alongside three of 
the four Meadow Pipit’s eggs which had been 
