APPENDIX. 
387 
immediately remarked on the rapidity with which the process of 
laying had taken place ; but our suspicions as to the mode in which 
the egg had been conveyed gave way to certainty upon the discovery 
that it loas nearly cold, while that of the Meadow Pipit was still 
quite warm. Now, even supposing the Cuckoo to have returned to 
the nest immediately after Gordon left, is it at all probable that a 
newly-laid egg could have fallen to such a low temperature in so 
short a time, and if so, how was it that the Pipit’s egg did not also 
cool ? I was at first rather inclined to give attention to the fact 
that the latter contained a living bird, and in order to satisfy 
myself upon the subject I this very evening procured a newly-laid 
hen’s egg and one that was within a few days of hatching, and 
placed them side by side in the open air : the result convinced me 
that the difference between the temperature of the Pipit s egg and 
that of the Cuckoo’s egg could not be thus accounted for. All this 
tends to confirm my views, that the Cuckoo, after laying its egg in 
some convenient place, leaves it there until a suitable nest can be 
found for its reception, to which the bird then carries it in its mouth. 
The Meadow Pipit did not again return to the nest, so I took one 
of the young birds and placed it in the Hedge Sparrow’s nest by 
the Ducks’ house, where, as above mentioned (951), the eggs are 
hatching. To all appearance, the old birds have not perceived the 
intrusion. 
e. Sedge Warbler, 
July 3, Tuesday. — Pine, and very hot. 
A good many Sedge Warblers about the ditches and marshy 
places which are overgrown with reeds. I spent several hours 
watching one this morning, and heard it imitate the notes of a 
Wagtail on the wing, the twittering of a Goldfinch, the harsh note 
of a Whitethroat, part of the song of a Skylark, the chirping of 
the same species, and the rough chattering noise of the Eed-backed 
Shrike. I afterwards heard it singing at half-past eleven o’clock 
at night. 
/. Duck-Hunting. 
The following extract has more to do with the habits of the 
observer than of the observed, but is so characteristic that I ven- 
ture upon its insertion. The author and his younger brother are 
