200 THE CUCKOO’S SECRET 
quote her account of the egg-deposition by the 
Cuckoo : 
“ I saw a bird suddenly sail quickly down from 
the roof above me, and fly on to the hedge about 
two feet from the nest. It was the Cuckoo. . . . 
There it sat, nervously turning its head this way and 
that, and looking about it in the same stealthy, 
cunning way that it had done on the occasion of 
its previous visit. . . . And then, without any 
hesitation, it hopped straight into the hedge and 
disappeared from view. For about a minute it 
was there ; then it came out and flew away. 
Burning with curiosity, I hurried into the garden, 
and, eagerly parting the branches of the hedge, 
looked in to the nest, and lo and behold, there, 
lying in Henrietta’s (the female Hedge-sparrow) 
dear little cup-shaped, softly-lined home, I saw 
the Cuckoo’s egg ! One of my sisters had again 
watched the whole affair with me. . . .” 
Now here again we have evidence of the 
Cuckoo’s previous visit, and also the glide (“ sail ”) 
to the nest. If she had been carrying her egg in 
her bill, surely one or other of the observers would 
have seen it when the Cuckoo sat on the hedge, 
“ nervously turning its head this way and that, 
and looking about it. . . .” To me, at least, it 
is obvious, in the light of my own experience, that 
