ANOTHER COMMON (1921) 155 
on the second common without missing anything 
of moment on my own. 
The day-to-day details are purposely omitted, 
for I feel that readers will by now have had quite 
sufficient of them. So the chief features will alone 
be dealt with, taking first the dominating Cuckoo, 
“ Mary Pickard/’ 
At the laying of her second egg on May 21 she, 
after various manoeuvres, was between 3.45 p.m. 
and 4 p.m. seen to make three floats to a certain 
spot. At the third attempt she remained on the 
ground for fully ten minutes before returning to 
her observation tree, a birch. P. B. Smyth then 
went to the spot and after a close search found a 
well-concealed Tree Pipit’s nest with one egg 
Bearing in mind the great difficulty he had seen a 
Cuckoo to have in finding a nest on the 19th, he 
thought he would place a dummy nest in an open 
spot close to the one he had just discovered. So he 
and Owen went and fetched a Meadow Pipit’s nest 
with four eggs, and on their return found the 
Cuckoo on the ground again searching apparently 
for the Tree Pipit’s nest. Smyth placed the dummy 
nest on the edge of some short heather about three 
feet from the Tree Pipit’s nest, whilst Owen went 
to fetch Hawkins, who was with them that day, 
