THE YOUNG CUCKOO 
21 1 
shown by my observations. At the sight of her 
dupes building, the Cuckoo “ conceives ” her egg, 
and she is ready to lay or deposit it in the chosen 
nest usually before the owner has commenced to 
incubate. In the case of our Meadow Pipit 
Cuckoos they picked up one of the rightful eggs as 
they went on to the nest, and held it in their bills 
whilst they laid. When the Cuckoo was disturbed 
after she picked up the egg and before she got on 
to the nest to lay,* she flew away only to return, in 
one case nearly two hours later, and then picked 
up a second egg of the fosterer as she again went 
to the nest. By picking up and holding the 
fosterer’s egg whilst laying, the Cuckoo avoids the 
risk of carrying away by mistake her own egg. 
When first hatched the Cuckoo is naked, blind, 
and an ugly squat-shaped little creature of fleshy 
hue. It is distinctly large for the size of the egg, 
which by the way is very thick-shelled. 
The young Cuckoo, produced from an egg which 
we watched in 1921 for the purposes of the film, 
will well serve to illustrate the earlier salient 
points, as we had the youngster under close 
observation. On the evening of June 9 a Meadow 
Pipit’s nest contained three eggs and one of a 
* See Frontispiece. 
