i8 
NATURE NOTES 
shattered middle third of the tree ; while the lower part was apparently untouched. 
The appearance gave one the idea that the middle of the tree had exploded. I 
have a photograph of the wrecked tree taken the day after it was struck. 
7, Holmesdale Road, Kew. E. IIuBB.\RD. 
Lightning. — With regard to Mr. Daubeny’s interesting article on lightning- 
struck trees, the latter are, no doubt, as spectacles of destruction, as a rule dis- 
appointing. On the other hand, I can recall an instance of utter and immediate 
destruction which came under my notice in the year 1890 in the Isle of Zante. 
During our visit a most violent thunderstorm broke over the island. One of our 
walks had been to inspect a magnificent specimen of the date-palm which grew 
in “solitary grandeur” in a vineyard some two miles out of the town. To our 
dismay then, we learnt, on the morrow of the storm, that this giant had been 
struck. We therefore paid a second visit to the spot ; and sure enough, there 
stood some twenty-five feet of trunk, while, at its base, lay the crown of leaves 
with some length of trunk attached ! On examining the latter we found that it 
had the appearance of having been twisted and wrenched off by some mighty 
hand — as a boy, w'ithout a knife in his pocket, would twist a hazel stick to break 
it. 1 asked ^Ir. Forster, the then head of the Eastern Telegraph in the island, 
how he would account for the phenomenon. His theory was that, at some time, 
the trunk must either have been bound by a hoop of metal, or pierced by a ring 
of nails, which served to check the downward current, with the lamentable result 
which I have tried to describe. Though our acquaintance had been of so short 
duration, we felt that we had lost a friend, and the island one of its numerous 
points of interest. 
Knowle Grange, Sidmouth. WtLL. V. ViCKERS. 
“ A Cuckoo Myth.” — On page 237 Mr. Joseph Collinson writes : — “ Some 
one stated that the young cuckoo ejects his foster-brothers. This is not true.” 
Who the “some one” is he does not inform us. Perhaps it was me. Anyhow 
it is perfectly correct, notwithstanding Mr. Collinson’s assertion to the con- 
trary. For what purpose do we write? Is it to give information and interest 
readers, or to mislead them ? What I have seen accomplished time after time, 
and others too, we are at liberty to believe, I presume, without being considered 
by readers, writers of “ falsehoods,” “ absurdities,” &c. It is as true as night will 
succeed day and day night, and Mr. Collinson writing without knowledge of the 
subject proves nothing. I venture to say that at the time of life that young 
cuckoos eject either eggs or young they have the “ anatomical structure ” for 
performing this feat, in contradiction to the remark that it “has no existence.” 
The back of a young cuckoo is hollow, and in this hollow I have seen robins’ 
eggs placed by the young cuckoo one after another and worked up the side of 
the nest and tumbled over outside, the young cuckoo with marvellous instinct 
stretching out its wings alongside the back to prevent the eggs rolling off. 
This is no “ myth,” and as long as cuckoos exist so long I have no doubt anyone 
with eyes to see can follow up the life history of young cuckoos and the ejecting 
of both eggs and young foster-brothers and sisteis as I have done. 
The Wren' s Nest, Astwood Bank, Redditch. James IIiam. 
Mr. Joseph Collinson (Nature Notes, December, 1898) treats somewhat 
contemptuously the belief that the young cuckoo ejects his foster-brothers 
from the nest. Mr. Collinson, apparently, supposes the belief to be wholly 
founded on observations of Vaccination Jenner. I do not know what Tenner 
wrote on the subject. His statements may be discredited. But this is what 
appears in “ The Origin of Species” (sixth edition, 1882): — “In the case of 
the European cuckoo, the offspring of the foster-parents are commonly ejected 
from the nest within three days after the cuckoo is hatched ; and as the latter at 
this age is in a most helpless condition, Mr. Gould was formerly inclined to 
believe that the act of ejection was performed by the foster-parents themselves. 
But he has now received a trustworthy account of a young cuckoo which was 
actually seen, whilst still blind and not able even to hold up its own head, in the 
act of ejecting its foster-brothers. One of the.se was replaced in the nest by the 
observer, and was again thrown out.” In the list of “ chief additions and correc- 
tions,” prefixed to the sixth edition, is this entry : “ The statement with resjiect 
to young cuckoos ejecting their foster-brothers confirmed.” Darwin, then, on the 
