THE CUCKOO’S SECRET 
164 
twelfth egg on June 14, with only one glide, at 
4.52 p.m. She found the nest, a Meadow Pipit’s 
with two eggs on a ridge, in two minutes. The 
glide to-day was more of an ordinary flight than 
the usual float, the line from the observation tree 
to the nest being practically level. It is, of course, 
only when the nest is considerably below the level 
of the observation post that the floating glide can 
be used to perfection. On June 18 “ Mary Pick- 
ford ” laid her fourteenth and last egg of the season 
at 8 p.m. 
I have illustrated at length occasions on which 
dummy nests were used and hope that at the same 
time it has been made clear that this method of 
inducing the Cuckoo to lay relies for its success 
upon there being a real nest which the Cuckoo is 
searching for in the near vicinity. It is perfectly 
obvious that otherwise there would be nothing to 
attract her to the spot. 
The first of Cuckoo N’s two eggs had an inte- 
resting little history attached to it. About that time 
we were very anxious for a Cuckoo’s egg to hatch, 
as we wanted to film a young Cuckoo in the act of 
ejecting the contents of the nest in which it found 
itself. We did not want to leave one of “ Mary 
Pickford’s ” eggs nor one of any other Cuckoo that 
