Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/291

Rh utmost fury by the pair of Robins, upon whose nest she desired to "board" her offspring. Again and again the little birds struck and buffeted her; and, on two occasions, one of the Robins seized hold of the Cuckoo by the back of the neck and hung on for a few seconds with all the fierce tenacity of a bull-dog. Whenever the Robins made one of their ferocious dives, the Cuckoo threw back her head, opened her great orangecoloured gape, and squawked loudly—ergo, her egg was not carried in her bill. Twice the Cuckoo disappeared into a recess at the root of a hawthorn, and this the Robins in no way resented. Emerging the second time from this recess, the Cuckoo, in spite of the fiercest opposition, alighted with out-spread wings and in a sprawling attitude about three yards further up the hedge. Here, pausing for an instant, during which the Robins got terribly excited, the Cuckoo made a sudden dash amongst the grass and disappeared entirely, except for the end of her tail, which was sticking out and in full view all the time. In two or three seconds she reappeared, and flew straight away out of sight, and so quickly that I was unable to see whether the protuberance in her throat had subsided or not. At once springing up, I ran across the road to the very spot where she had gone in. I put in my hand and felt three eggs, one of which was moist and slightly sticky,—and this egg proved to be that of the Cuckoo. I then went down and examined the recess which she had previously twice entered, and found to my astonishment a Robin's nest from which, by its appearance, the young had but lately flown—and in the hedge I saw a young Robin hopping about. What was the Cuckoo's reason for going to the old nest first? That this nest was in the same place as that which she had remembered as the last year's nursery for her egg seems to be one explanation.

In support of my conviction that this Cuckoo carried her egg in her throat, may I be allowed to re-state the following facts?:—

I. She constantly opened her mouth to utter her continuous squawks of protest,—her egg, therefore, was not carried in her bill.

II. Her tail being visible to me all the time she was engaged at the nest, she did not lay her egg in the usual way.