XCIV 
INTRODUCTION. 
“ After this tlie Cuckoo stood a minute or two, feeling back with its wings, as if to make .sure that the 
Pipit was fairly overboard, and then subsided into the bottom of the nest. 
“ As it was getting late, and the Cuckoo did not immediately set to work on the other nestling, I replaced 
the ejected one, and went home. On returning next day, both nestlings were found dead and cold, out of 
the nest. I replaced one of them ; but the Cuckoo made no effort to get under and eject it, but settled 
itself contentedly on the top of it. All this I find accords accurately with Jenner’s description of what he 
saw. But what struck me most was this : The Cuckoo was perfectly naked, without a vestige of a feather, 
or even a hint of future feathers ; its eyes were not yet opened, and its neck seemed too weak to support 
the weight of its head. The Pipits had well-developed quills on the wings and back, and had bright eyes, 
partially open ; yet they seemed quite helpless under the manipulations of the Cuckoo, which looked a much 
less developed creature. The Cuckoo’s legs, however, seemed very muscular, and it appeared to feel about 
with its wings, which were absolutely featherless, as wjth hands, the ‘spurious wing’ (unusually large in 
proportion} looking like a spread-out thumb. The most singular thing of all was the direct purpose with 
which the blind little monster made for the open side of the nest, the only part where It could throw Its 
burthen down the bank. I think all the spectators felt the sort of horror and awe at the apparent 
inadequacy of the creature’s intelligence to its acts that one might have felt at seeing a toothless hag raise a 
ghost by an incantation. It was horribly ‘ uncanny’ and ‘ grewsome.’ ” 
A few words more on this subject. My friend Mr. Noble, of Park Place, Henley-on-Thames, wrote to me 
thus on the 4th of May, 1871 : — 
“ Mrs. Noble told me this morning that a Wagtail had built a nest in our dining-room balcony ; on going 
thither 1 found the nest in a corner quite exposed, with three eggs In it, one much larger than the others; 
the two smaller ones were of a greenish colour with minute spots, the larger of a deeper green and more 
largely blotched. Can this be a Cuckoo’s ? ” 
On Sunday, May the 21st, I saw this nest with four young birds, three lying by the side of the nest, from 
which they had evidently been but recently thrown, as they were plump and fresh. Allowing, therefore, 
that the AVagtail had laid a third egg on the 5th of May, and thirteen or fourteen days for the hatching of 
these birds, they must have been ejected in about three days after exclusion. On the 31st of the same 
month Mr. Noble again wrote : — “ The Cuckoo is nearly fledged ; he rises in the nest in the most hideous 
way, extending his neck like a serpent.” 
Were we in possession of similar positive evidence of the means by which the Cuckoo’s egg is deposited 
in the dome-shaped nest of the Wren and in those of other birds, as w'e now have of those by which the 
young of the foster-parents are ejected, the history of the breeding-habits of this remarkable bird would be 
complete. 
