CUCKOO has been known to repeat the note of a Titlark, bv whom
it had been so far educated. The voice of the Cuckoo, like that of
other great vocalists, is much affected by the weather; in times of
drought it becomes hoarse, but is mollified again bv the summer
shower.
At this stage of the account of the Cuckoo its nidification should
be described; but, as is so well known, there is none to describe. It
deposits its parasitical eggs in the nest of some other small bird, for
which they are not too large, being singularly small in proportion to
its own size—just one quarter what they should be in proportion to
those of small birds than which they are themselves four times larger:
the provision of nature is obvious. If the Cuckoo's egg were larger
than ii is, ii would require to be laid in a larger aest, with the
natural possessors of which the young one, as Mr. Selbv points out,
would be, or might be, unable successfully to cope. And first, to
mention the different species of birds with whose domestic arrangements
it so unscrupulously makes free. The following have been already
ascertained, and doubtless there are others to be added to the list, or
even if not, there would be, did the parent Cuckoo stand in need of
such, failing those about to be enumerated. These are the Dunnock,
commonly called the I ledge-Sparrow, the Robin, the Titlark, the Tied
Wagtail, the Redstart, the Whitcrhroat, the Willow Warbler, the Rock
Lark, the Sky Lark, the Reed Warbler, the Reed Bunting, the Sedge
Warbler, the Willow Wren, the Vellow-IIammer, the Blackbird, the
Wren, the Throstle, the Whinchat, the Greenfinch, the Grasshopper
Warbler, the Chaffinch, the Red-hacked Shrike, and one writer, E. C.
Ta\lor. Ls<|., in the 'Zoologist,' page 4477, says the Tree Pipit
It is said that the Cuckoo deposits her egg before the other bird
has laid hers, in some instances, and in others afterwards; but in the
former, or Indeed in either case the deceived little bird goes on to
lay hers, in happy ignorance of the fate that awaits their embryo
contents when or even before being hatched. It is, I think, quite an
erroneous notion that the Cuckoo ever meets with any delay in finding
a neat suitable for her to lay her egg in. At the time when she does
lav, birds1 nests of all the common species are abundant in every
hedge, and there is no more difficulty in her finding one than another.
It has been imagined that she lays her eggs later in the day than
Other birds; and this possibly may prove to be the case.
Mr. Blyth, alluding to the supposition that the egg of the Cuckoo
is already partially advanced towards maturity before being laid, thinks
that such is somewhat confirmed by its being, as he argues, impossible
for the Cuckoo to lay her egg in the nest of a bud which has already
begun to sit; but this is quite inconclusive, for not only do birds sit
more or less from the very first, as for instance while laying the
second ami following eggs, at any of which periods the difficulty lie
imagiues would be equally in existence, and the Cuckoo could not
tell how soon it would be removed, nor could she wait to see, but
it must also be remembered that occasionally the bird leaves her eggs
for a short time, even after she has begun to sit regularly on all the
number, which opportunity the Cuckoo might avail herself of; doubtless
also her approach, so manifestly a cause of alarm to small birds, as
proved by the way in which the latter pursue the former on the
wing, might and would have the effect—perhaps the desired and
intended effect, of driving off the bird from the nest, that the Cuckoo
might, for the time, and for her own ends, usurp her place. The
Rev. George Jeans, Vicar of Alford, Lincolnshire, has written me word
that at Alverbank, Hampshire, he saw, in the year 1828, for many
days together, two old Cuckoos teaching their young ones to fly.
It seems that in most cases where the eggs of small birds are found
in nests which contain those of the Cuckoo, the former have been laid
after the latter, and in addition, often, to others previously thrown out
by the Cuckoo. In one instance six young Titlarks were found in a
nest with a young Cuckoo. It appears that the Cuckoo lays her own
egg before removing any already in the nest; and possibly her being
disturbed hi the eviction may be the cause of the other eggs being
sometimes found with hers; for more than once a small bird has
been observed resolutely attacking and successfully repelling a Cuckoo
from her household. If there be no egg in the nest at tlie time that
the Cuckoo lays hers, it is asserted that the other bird will turn the
Cuckoo's egg out, though she will not if the Cuckoo have removed
one or more that have been in it. It seems however from what has
been above stated, that, at all events occasionally it cannot be so, but
that the little bird will lay, or continue to lay hers with it in the
nest; for it is not to be supposed that after turning out one egg of
the Cuckoo the latter would lay another, and if she did, the same
might happen to it as to the previous one.
The eggs are not laid until the middle of May, and they require
about a fortnight's incubation. Montagu found one so late as the
26th. of June; and Mr. Jesse records that a young Cuckoo which had
only just left the nest of a Wagtail, was found in Hampton Court
Park, on the 18th. of August, 18-32. The young birds are not able
to fly in less than five or six weeks.
Occasionally two Cuckoo's eggs are found in one and the same nest;
but they are supposed to be those of different birds. It is thought,