216 J . POWELL—REAPING OE CTJCKOOS AT CASSIOBURY. 
and it did not seem to satisfy it, though it worked very hard. The 
reason of the female being absent I thought was that she must 
be building another nest. I brought the cuckoo into the house, as 
it seemed to mope, and it died a few hours afterwards. 
About a week after this bird died, I found another in a pear tree 
on a wall not more than twenty yards from the place where I found 
the second, only about eight feet from the ground, and well ex¬ 
posed. It could have only been hatched a very short time, for it 
could not see. There were no traces of any other eggs having been 
in the nest, for I examined all about the nest and on the ground. 
This bird I put into a cage. When it was well fledged, which 
was about a fortnight from the time I found it, the wagtails fed it 
for nearly a month, when some one put a piece of bread in the cage, 
and the cuckoo began to peck at it. I left it a little longer and 
threw bread on the ground to see if the wagtails would feed it 
from the bread. This they did for several days, and then ceased 
coming. I therefore brought the bird away, and fed it on hard- 
boiled eggs, bread, and raw meat, but it did not care for the meat, 
it would pick it up and drop it; it was very fond of bread and 
eggs. I gave it small young frogs and flies occasionally. The 
frogs seemed a great luxury to it. After shaking them it would 
swallow them whole. This bird still lives, and is very tame.*' 
* Postscript .—The bird died about the end of April. 
