i7« 
THE CUCKOO’S SECRET 
( e ) The nest in which her twenty-first egg was 
laid on June 27, 1920, was seen to be 
visited by the Cuckoo on June 24 and 26, 
when it contained one and two eggs 
respectively. 
(/) On May 23, 1921, Cuckoo A watched No. 9 
pair of Pipits building. She was seen to 
watch them again on the next day, and 
laid her eighth egg on May 28, when the 
nest contained three eggs. 
(g) On June 7, 1921, Cuckoo A visited the site 
of the nest which received her fourteenth 
egg on June 11, when it had five eggs. 
Perhaps best of all — 
(h) On May 28, 1921, Cuckoo A when harassed 
visited the approximate site of the nest 
which did not even contain an egg of the 
foster bird until two days later, on which 
day the Cuckoo also laid there. 
It is not necessary to give further instances, for 
they occurred throughout the 1921 season. Now 
it will not be disputed that the Cuckoo must have 
visited nests often unobserved. And we recollect 
any number of occasions when we watched the 
Cuckoo observing Meadow Pipits in the vicinity of 
their nests without actually flying down to them. 
But on no occasion (until we worried the Cuckoo 
