1 66 THE CUCKOO’S SECRET 
of the fosterer’s eggs, we have found in point of 
fact she takes, as one would expect, the egg which 
lies nearest to the outside edge of the nest, subse- 
quently laying her own in the same spot. 
To close this chapter I will relate an incident 
that occurred on May 29. It being an off-day on 
my original common, and the second common 
being in most capable hands, Owen and I motored 
to another district in the neighbourhood of K 
to hunt for nests of different species altogether. 
Whilst wandering about on a common where 
he had taken Cuckoos’ eggs a few years previously, 
Owen’s attention was attracted by a Cuckoo flying 
past him, chased by five Meadow Pipits. The 
Cuckoo alighted on the ground and at that moment 
I came up. It was about 4.30 p.m. and together 
we realised that we had every likelihood of wit- 
nessing the laying of an egg. The Cuckoo evi- 
dently could not find the nest, and shortly returned 
to her perch in a tree about two hundred yards 
away. She again floated to the spot, flopped 
about in search of the nest, and once again re- 
turned to her tree. Thereupon I rapidly con- 
structed a false nest and inserted therein three 
fresh Tree Pipit’s eggs which we had taken earlier 
in the day. Whilst doing so, the Cuckoo made a 
