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Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre film6s 6 des taux de reduction diff6rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul cliche, il est film6 6 partir de Tangle supdrieur gauche, de gauche 6 droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n^cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m^thode. 1 2 3 i i 1 2 3 4 5 6 OUR COMMON CUCKOO. nwiBTgri ^'i%f-r^ 'Ik li^xvt' m:^-'^ ^le'* -^-^ ^ ^ m 1 9Hi« I so in OUR COMMON CUCKOO AND OTHER CUCKOOS AND PARASITICAL I'.IRDS AN ATTKMI'T TO KKACH A TKri-; TIIKOKY OI' THKM BY CUMI'AKATIVK STIMJV Ol' IIAllIT AND FUNCTION WITH A THOROUGH c;kiticism and exposure or darwin's views AND KOMANllSS VIEWS AND THOSE Ol' THEIR FOLLOWERS BY ALKXANDER H. JAPP, LL.D., F.R.S.E. ALTIIOK OK "HOURS IN MV GARDEN;" " IHiiKK AC : HIS I.IFK AM) AIMs;" "ANIMAL ANECDOTKS AKRANi.Kli ON A NEW I'lil NCI I'l.K : " "ANIMAL TRAITS;" ETC. WITH VAKIOL'S ILLUSTRATIONS IL 0 It I) n n THOMAS L5URLEIGH 1899 UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA LIBRARY Victoria, fi. C ' »i 11 HAKNICOTT AND PKAUCE I'RINTEUS PKKFACE. ALL the district rovind a little house in the country, to which I removed from London, now getting on to twenty years ago, abounds with cuckoos, as well as with nightingales. 1 was thus led to pay more attention than I had before ilone to both these birds and to two others, to which I do not here at all refer. I have lain half-days in woods and coppices to watch and observe as best 1 could the ways of the cuckoos, and in doing this I could not help seeing other things ; and sometimes I have been so struck with what I have seen that I became very anxious to know in how far other observers had witnessed the same or similar occurrences. This led me on and on, in a wide track of reading and inquiry, till I founil myself launched on a piece of big and rather difficult research about the various different cuckoos in Europe and further afield, and even about other parasitical birds. I was constantly forced on attempts at comparative survey, and the endeavour to ^rm sufficing theories, based on rational explanations of habit, or, at all events, working hy- viii Prefdce. potheses. Some of the results of these endeavours are presented in this vohmie, which, if it has no other vaUie, may claim this : that it describes, as far as I can. observations and encjuiries undertaken with a desire for knowledi,'e only, and to satisfy myself, and with no notion of writing; a book. The (juestion may well be asked : why, then, do you write a book ? My answer is that science is surely aided by any demonstration of unity in type or tendency where before only difl'erences and varieties were observed and distinguished. Since, I believe, against some great authorities, that our common cuckoo (Ciuiilus ctiiionis) is far more intimately re- lated to the two best-known American cuckoos and to several others of India and elsewhere than has yet been demonstrated, I cra\e for permission to put my demonstration before those who may be presumed to be interested in it, and to leave the matter with them. I have scorned no pains to make it complete. The reader will find as he proceeds that the single species — our cuckoos — soon leads to questions of larger interest — fjuestions, indeed, of the highest scientific interest, in which not only lairds, but many other species are more or less involved. I have to thank Dr. Bowdler Sharpe and Mr. Saunders at South Kensington for aid, and Mr. E. Bidwell for much ready assistance ; Dr. Richard Prefnci. ix (iurnett, of tliu British Museum, and Mr. Waterhouse and Mr. Trif,'},', of the Zoolo^'ical Society, for such service as I can but feebly thank them for : by their readiness to ot)liK'e, I was able to consult several thinf,'s which i liad failed to find either at the Uritish Museum or ai South Kensin<^'ton. 1 must record also my j^ratittide to 1 >r. A. Kussel Wallace and Canon Tristram lor answers to letters, and I must not omit to add Professor II. (J. Forbes and my old friend and correspondent, Mrs. bishop (Isabella L. Bird) for friendly replies— both full and ready— about cuckoos in the Far East, etc. The work of Mr. John Craij; and Mr. j. Peat Millar, of Beith, in securiuf; a series of photographs, showing the young cuckoo in the most striking stages of his work in turning out eggs and young birds, could not but be most interesting to me as supplying exactly what some sceptics, among them Dr. Charles Creighton, in Vincintition aud yeinicr and elsewhere, had repeatedly and triumphantly demanded. I have in my hands copies of the whole series ; and I will here give notes as sent to me in explanation of them by Mr. Peat Millar: No. I, shows attitude taken by the younn cuckoo when the other young bird was put into the nest by Mr. Craig. No. 2 was taken five seconds later, and shows the young bird fairly on its back, and the cuckoo beginning to rise. X Preface. No. 3, shows the young bird still on the cuckoo's back —the cuckoo well up in the nest ; taken five or six seconds after No. 2. No. 4, shows the cuckoo right at top of the nest— the other young bird at first slipping off its back. You will in this one notice that the cuckoo has its wings extended, to keep the bird on its back from rolling back into the nest. [Nos. 3 and 4 were reproduced in The Feathered World, and are now, by the kind consent of all the parties concerned— Mrs. Comyns-Lewer, Mr. Craig, and Mr. J. Peat-Millar— here printed at p. 28. 1 No. 5, shows the young cuckoo settling down in the ne^f. after having finished his murderous work. [1 a-n sorry to say, adds Mr. Miller, that the young bird in No 5 is rather indistinct, owing to the fact that, when it w^as thrown out of the nest, it was out of the actual focus of the lens. ] No. 6, taken at a different lime, shows the young cuckoo with the egg in the hollow of the back. No. 7 is a snapshot of the cuckoo, after having reached the age f)f ten or eleven days, living in perfect harmony with an- otlier young bird, which Mr. Craig had put there with the view of trying the experiment. They had apparently found the nest too small for them, and they were lying snugly ensconced clo.se together in the soft grass at the side of the nest. In that posi- tion this photograph was taken. [This goes further to prove that the young cuckoo, in about eight or nine days, at furthest, loses completelv thi- impulse tf) throw out what is beside it.] i No. 0 is given as the frontispiece to this volume, and No 7 at p 45, with many thanks to Mr. Craig and Mr. Peat-Millar, for freely and cordially giving me permission to use them.j Preface. xi My book was finished and partly printed before the news of this achievement reached me ; but I have made room for the leading facts which settle so much that was in dispute before, and some passages which might have disappeared or been remodelled had J had these facts sooner before me, are so far explained in the light of this statement. These photographs — the whole series or any one of them— may be procured from Mr. J. Peat-Millar, Braehead, Beith, Scotland, at a moderate price, and doubtless there are many ornithologists and students of natural history who would be glad to procure them. Since this book was printed, Mr. Dewar has fur- nished us with another testimony to ejection of young by the cuckoo-nestling : " A friend tells me that he saw a young cuckoo, after much exertion, turn out some young hedge- sparrows. When he replaced one of the birds in the nest, it was again ejected by the cuckoo." =■= 1 have also heartily to thank Mr. J. H. Gurney for the use of two illustrations, and for other aid readily given. ALEXANDER H. JAPP. Wild Lifn In Hampshire Highlimds, p. 88. CONTENTS. I'AGE ^4, i Part I. Strangk Points in Life History ofCucuIhs canorus: Our Common Cuckoo .... ,, II. Further Strange Traits and Some Definite Results ,, III. Mr. Dakwin and Mr Romanes dealt with ,, IV. Evidence i-rom all Parts of the World .... ,, V. Strange Facts about Calls and Young Birds of Citciiliis C(tiioius Books Read or Consulted . . Index ...... 8i lOI 199 255 273 281 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. I'Af.E Young Ctckoo with Egg Plackd o\ Uack Ready to Rise . . frontispiece Initial — Cticulus caiionis. Reproduction of Mrs. Blackburn's Draw- ing OE Young Cuckoo Throwing out Young Nestlings ' From Mr. J. Peat-Millar's Photograph of j Young Cuckoo in First Stage OF Rising with Young Meadow-pipit on Back Ditto, Ditto, Five Seconds Afterwards . I Young Cuckoo Lvin>j Amicably with other Young Bird .... Tailpiece — Other \'iew of Ciicidus cnnonis Cuckoos Destroying Young Birds, that Old Ones may Build again and give chance for their Eggs Young Cuckoo in Meadow-pipit's Nest \\'agtail Feeding Young Cuckoo The Yellow-billed Cuckoo ... Cow-birds on Cows' Backs after Insects The American Cow-bird If 28 28 45 77 137 192 233 237 250 S'J PART I. STRANGE POINTS IN LIFE HISTORY OF CUCULUS C A NOR US: OUR COMMON CUCKOO. OUR COMMON CUCKOO AND OTHER CUCKOOS. I. ^t A IJOL'T no bird, whi( .jJkM-: -^^ <'i sense is well ki icli in known and familiar, is there more mystery than a bout the Cuckoo. Early poets, who were impressed by two things about it — its arrival almost in the fore-front of the j:,aeat army of mij^aants in the openinj,' of sprinf^, and its peculiar call (heard almost everywhere while yet the bird is comparatively seldom seen) — have celebrated it and idealized it. Wordsworth finely called it a " wanderini,^ voice," and Michael ]Sruce, whose beauti- ful poem, like a cuckoo's egg, was by Providence 4 Life History of Common Cuckoo. dropped into another bird's nest — that is, found a father in the Rev. John Logan, who appropriated it, but only in the end to lose by his mean action — named it " the messenger of spring." Had these poets known what later observation has revealed about the cuckoo and its ways, they might have been less effusive, though, perhaps, they would have had their answer in justification ready. They would have said that they had to do with the impressions made on an imaginative mind by the cuckoo's note, which revelations of science, however adverse to the bird's character in certain respects, coidd never modify as regards the possibility of poetic impression. A later poet, who, it is to be presumed, knew all about the cuckoo, yet wrote thus : — The cuckoo from the wood I hear ; He has no thcjught to fill my ear ; And yet the sounds come sweet to me- The note of bird in ecstasy. Continuous, full, it floats and fills The air with soft impassioned thrills. And makes me think of days gone by, When I had gracious company. Goethe was much exercised by the knowledge of the cuckoo's habits in certain respects. We find Eckermann and him thus speaking as reported in the *' Conversations " : — " We know," said I, " that it does not brood itself, but lays its egg in the nest of some other bird We also know that these are all insect-eating birds ; and must be so, because the cuckoo itself is an insect- eating bird, and its young cannot be brought up by Itisect-Eaters and Seed-Enters, 5 ;i seed-eating bird. Hut how does the cuckoo find out that these are all actually insect-eating birds ? For all differ extremely from each other, both in form and colour, and also in their song, and their call-note. Further, how comes it that the cuckoo can trust its egg and its tender young to nests which are so different with respect to structure, dryness, and moisture ? The nest of the wren is so dry and close, that one would fancy the big young cuckoo would be suffocated in it, yet it thrives there ; it thrives, too, in the nest of the yellow wagtail, which builds upon damp commons in a nest of rushes." Eckermann was wrong about the cuckoo invariably choosing the nests of insect-eating birds for its eggs — it sometimes has recourse to nests of seed-eaters ; but the young cuckoos adapt themselves, and flourish just as well. But in truth, the very word " insect-eating," as implying a hard and fast distinction from which there is no variation worth noting, is egregiously mislead- ing. Not a few birds whicli pass amongst the crowd as seed-eaters, such, say, as the Greenfinch, notori- ously, in the time of feeding the young, resort largely to insects and caterpillars ; and I am even inclined to think from facts which have come before me, and which I ha\e myself obserxed, that all birds more or less in the time of feeding the young will largely and most astonishingly vary and extend the list of edibles. Canaries, more especially at that time, will devour plant-lice and sometimes even try ants-eggs, which I would not have credited had I not seen it ; for, having once had a nightingale and what is wrongly called a " grass-finch," I first got proof of this by chance, V_.^; 6 Life History of Connnon Cuckoo, owing wholly to the conditions in which 1 kept my canaries and finches — free at certain times to fly about the room, in one end of which I had my aviary. This tendency of seed-eatinj,' birds to \ary from seed-eatiiif,', more especially at the time of feeding; young ones, would thus be all in favour of the young cuckoos. If they rejected the seed diet, they would come in for relief through the insects, for which the foster parents would now be on the look-out ; and a question may well here arise whether these facts may not have had their own inthience in turning certain seed-eaters more and more definitely into insect-eaters during the period of feeding the young. On the other hand, there are several birds, among them the l:51ackcap and the Garden -warbler, which, though set down in bird books as insect-eaters, are largely seed and berry-eaters too, and there can be no doubt that blackcaps often remain in this country all the winter, managing to " make a do of it," as London working women say, by aid of elderberries, mountain- ash berries, and other berries. The crossbills are put down in souv^ ornithological handbooks as feeding entirely on fir seeds, but they feed freely on aphides, small files, and minute beetles, and this more especially at the period of rearing the young. '■' Even linnets will turn insect-eaters at breeding and other times. We read : " In i8gi there was a plague of black diamond moth caterpillars. Rooks, plovers, seagulls, starlings, linnets, i^'reenfincJies, and yellowhammers all turned to police duty and ate the grubs. Only the sparrows * Zoologist, 1895, p. 228. mm Linnets eat Insects. 7 held aloof, and aiiionj,' returns from all counties, from Dover to Aberdeen, only three spoke in praise of the sparrow. ■■ And this, thou^fh the Linnet by systt-niatir ornith- olo},Msts is set down as the most persistent seed-eater of all the finches. Mr. Howard Saunders says that •' the Linnet's food consists of soft seeds, especially those of an oily nature, such as the various species of flax and hemp ; f,aains of charlock, knot-f,'rass, and other weeds, are also largely consumed, while in winter various kinds of berries and even oats are devoured." Dr. liowdler Sharpe affirms that " the Linnet is not known to feed its young on insects to the same extent as most of the other linrhes." f When bringing up the young, the linnet in some cases, at all events, has recourse very largely to small insects. The self -same process is working itself out in America as in Great JJritain. We might multiply extracts here to prove it, but these will come with more effect, falling in at their proper places. Here, however, are the words of one of the most recent authorities ; " When we had forests and woodlands edged with belts of shrubbery, swamps with masses of thickets, when on the roadsides and along the fences trees and bushes overgrown with vines and other climbing plants grew in abundance, we had birds everywhere and in plenty. They limited the increase of insects, but now that the birds are gone, insects have no enemies and can increase to unlimited numbers. All • Spectator, May 13, 1899. t Handbook, p. 45. 8 Life History of Common Cuckoo. small birds are insect-eaters, and at certain seasons of the year they feed on nothing else." '■'■'■ If it should be found that there is anything in the suggestion above, it presents quite a new phase of adaptation due to special circumstances. Mr. W'estley T. Page, F.Z.S., whose experience is very large, writes generally thus: — "Though wax- bills and finches will do well for a long time on seed alone, they are the better in condition, and more bril- liant in plumage for the soft food and an occasional insect." t Waterton indeed seriously raises the question whether severity of climate and the food question have anything to do wi^^h migration, since he finds that, like most of the migrants, the wren, the hedge- sparrow and the robin are insectivorous birds, and yet can manage not only to subsist through the English winter but to increase their numbers. Of all birds the stomach and digestive organs of the cuckoo would seem to render it most unsuited for seed- eating ; yet we are quite aware that White, of Sel- borne, in his dissections, found among worms, flies and caterpillars, many seeds in the stomach of the cuckoo — seeds which, on our theory, would be taken so far medicinally, perhaps, more than aught else, as dogs and many carnivorous creatures eat grass, etc., with //;/.s- view. But the wonderful adaptations of nature in providing exceptional cases to all rules is what to us forms the special attraction of natural history study and observation. Let us end this section as we almost began it, by * H. Nehrling, i, p. xxviii. t The Feathered World, 14th July, 1899, p. 42. \\ I 1 Nature not scrupulous. 9 quotinp^ from Goethe's " Conversations with Ecl'er- mann," in continuation of what was said above : "This is a mystery," returned Goethe. " But tell me how the cuckoo places its eg<,f in the nest of the wren with so small an opening." " The cuckoo lays it upon a dry spot," returned I, " and takes it to the nest in her beak. I believe, too, that she does this with the wren's nest and with all others. . . . Supposing that she lays hve eggs, and that all these are properly hatched and brought up by affectionate foster-parents, we must still wonder that Nature caii resolve to sacrifice at least fifty of the young of our best singing-birds for five young cuckoos." " In such things, as well as in others," returned Goethe, " Nature does not appear to be very scrupu- lous. She has a good fund of life to lavish, and she does so now and then without much hesitation. But how does it happen that so many young smging-birds are lost for a siiigle young cuckoo ? " "The first brood," I replied, "is generally lost; for even if it should happen that the eggs of the singing-bird are hatched at the same time with that of the cuckoo, which is very probable, the parents are so much delighted with the larger bird that they think of and feed that alone, whilst their own young are neglected and vanish from the nest. It is a long time before it attains its full size and plumage, and even after it has flown it requires to be fed ; so that the whole summer passes away and the foster-parents do not think of a second brood." " This is very convincing — very remarkable," said Goethe. lo Life History of Coiiniion Cuckoo. But even Eckermann did not know some of the blackest facts about the cuckoo and its ways. Every new fact discovered, indeed, seems only to make him blacker. He not only drops his eggs in other birds' nests, but his young are specially armed with powers to throw out of the nest the true children of the birds under whose protection they have been placed, so that they may have no competitors in demanding food from the foster-parents, who devote themselves in a truly wonderful manner to feeding and nurturing these intruders and aliens. II. Diri'icui-TiKS, however, begin at the very start in th T study of this strange bird-monster — our common cuckoo, scientifically, Ciiciiliis caiiorus. For a long time it was thought that when it had fixed upon the nest it meant to drop its egg in, it watched a favour- able opportunity and sat upon the nest till it had deposited its burden. But it has been found that the cuckoo drops its eggs into nests so small and so formed that it is impossible the bird could have sat upon the nest. Its egg has even been found in domed nests. It chooses various nests, from those of the Meadow-pipit, Hedge-sparrow, and Wagtail, up to those of the I'ed-backed Shrike, the Bunting, taking no end of nests between, including those of the Reed- wren, the Redstart, the Icterine Warbler, and some- times even using those, though that must be excep- tional, of the House-sparrow, Jay, Thrush, and Wood- pigeon. Almost every bird whose nest is the least suitable is victimised. I Renson of Zy<^odactyle Feet. ir Lord Lilford says : " 1 once and only once met with a cuckoo's egf^ in a spotted fly-catcher's nest." •■ These facts have forced naturalists to conclude that the cuckc o does not lay the ej^g in the nest at all, but lays it on the ground and carries it in its beak, and so deposits it in the nest chosen for it. This has now been observed and verihed by so ma*"/ naturalists that it cannot be doubted ; and this fact disposes of the fine theory of some distinguished speculators that the zygodactyle feet — that is, feet with two toes behind and two toes in front, as in the case of parrot and wood-pecker — ^admirably enabled it to lift and carry its eggs in its claws. The reason for the zygo- dactyle feet must therefore be sought elsewhere. Looking at Mrs. Blackburn's drawing, it has sug- gested itself to me that here we may have a reason for the zygodactyle feet. A bird with but one smaller shorter toe behind clearly could scarcely so fix its feet beneath as to retain position leaning against the side of the nest with its posteriors : it would slip away. But with the two hind toes with claws well fixed the thing would I think be possible. In the case of the wood-peckers, which for the same reason need to (w themselves in trees, the two hind toes would do much to keep the bird from slipping down through the front toes giving way. There is ro such reason I have ever heard of for such a forivation in the habit, of the cuckoo ; and any hint to account for their presence may be suggestive, and lead others to bring their minds to bear upon it. Any way, I have as yet heard of no other necessity in the life-economy of the bird or adecjuate explanation of it ; and 1 shall be * Birds of Northamptonshire, i, p. 79. 12 Life History of Common Cuckoo. glad to hear what other ornithologists, anatomists, and biologists have to say on that particular point. The zygodactyle feet are very fully developed even in the egg. I discount the idea of one writer in ornithology that this form of foot is favourable for letting the cuckoo stoop freely to the ground in certain positions to pick insects oflf low-lying leaves ; because nature has already advertised that another form of foot is at least equally adapted to business of that kind, and with it has supplied many birds which stoop low, and run, hiding among grass and vegetation — notably, the Corncrake and the Nij^htjar, which certainly does stoop and run, and fly wondrou^.y fleet, as well as others. The writer of the article " Cuckoo " in the Encyclo- puiUa Britanrticn, Professor Alfred Newton, to wit, who is exceedingly cautious, and who wrote before some of the most valuable and best authenticated facts about the bird were published, is compelled to accept this as proved, citing these two cases :- - "The most satisfactory evidence on the point is that of Herr Adolf Miiller, a forester of Gladenbach, in Darmstadt, who says {Zovlotr. Gnrtcn, 1866, pp. 374- 375) that through a telescope he watched a cuckoo as she laid her egg on a bank, and then conveyed the egg in her bill to a wagtail's nest. Herr Braune, a forester at Griez, in the Principality of Reuss, shot a hen cuckoo as she was leaving the nest of an icterine warl)ler. In the oviduct of this cuckoo he found an egg coloured very like that of the warbler ; and on looking into the nest he found there an exactly similar egg, which there can be no reasonable doubt It. in Merciless Ejection. 13 had just been laid there by the cuckoo. Moreover, Herr Grunack {yournal fur Ont., 1873, p. 454) has since found one of the most abnormally-coloured specimens, quite unlike the ordinary egg of the cuckoo, to contain an embryo so fully formed as to show the characteristic zygodactylic feet of the bird, thus proving unquestionably its parentage." The faift that the young cuckoo mercilessly ejetfts from the nest and makes an end of his foster-brothers is now just as well established as that the parent drops the eggs into other birds' nests. Soon after being hatched, the young cuckoo exhibits great rest- lessness, irritability, and energy. Whatever is in the nest it endeavours to get under. It keeps on beating its stumps of wings, and as it gets older will spar with its wings and peck at the finger, if placed near it. The other nestlings are usually disposed of by it during the second or third day, and any eggs share the same fate as the young birds. It will permit nothing in the nest beside it — whatever is dropped in, it will lift up and throw over the edge. Difficulties have been raised about the possibility of the young cuckoo throwing the other nestlings out of domed nests ; but these are much reduced, if not met, by the fact that in open nests, set in certain positions, the area on the edge of the nests which the young cuckoo could make available is but one-fifth of the whole circumference, and that it has a special instinct for working always toward the open portion ; besides all which the birds in the domed nests it favours would generally be very small birds. Later observations prove that in addition to great strength of shoulder and wing stump, the young cuckoo is aided by a 14 Lifi History of Common Cuckoo. curious depression in the back behind the shoulders, which disappears as the bird grows older. Its back, in fact, forms nothing short of a kind of shovel, with which to lift handily whatever it succeeds in once getting under. Mr. J. H. Gurney well points out that its stumps of wings are like arms with ill-formed hands, which they really are. All this has of late years been repeatedly observed, and this not by solitary observers, but by whole parties. Mrs. Blackburn (the well - known bird observer and artist) and her friends, had peculiarly favour- able opportunities of observing the process by which the young cuckoo threw the true birds out of the nest. A cuckoo had intruded an egg into the nest of a meadow-pipit which was at the foot ot a low shrub on a gentle slope of turf. The nest so rested on the turf amid shrubs that only one side of the nest was really open for anything to be ejected. Mrs. Blackburn's attention was first called to the circumstance by seeing young birds struggling on the sloping turf. Thinking that they had been thrown out of the nest by some accident, she went, took them up, and put them back in tlie nest. I'hey were speedily thrown out again. At last she contrived a means by which she could see into the nest. The young cuckoo edged about in the nest until he got his shoulder and wing under the poor nestling, then edged up and up, standing upon his sprawling long legs, his feet fixed in the sides of the nest material until he was high enougli, then he elevated the shoulder furthest from the edge of the nest, making, with the most wondrous, unerring pre- cision, always to the open side of the nest, and then Mrs. lilackburii's Drawiinr. 15 with ;i hitch threw the poor thinf,' out. Further observations made by this lady went anew to prove that the fjrowth of the upper bone of the wing in the young cuckoo is exceptionally quick, and that this part is exceptionally strong — simply, as it would seem, to arm it with full resource for this instinct of deadly self-preservation which it possesses. Mr. J. E. Harting in Our Siniinier Migrnnts reproduced Mrs. Blackburn's drawing of the young cuckoo throwing out the pipits. .-■ *■ j^ >. .O-^f-^ySif -■^■■%.K •'".X^ Mrs. Blackburn adds that the young cuckoo was " perfectly naked, without the vestige of a feather, or e\en a hint of future feathers ; its eyes were not l6 Life History of Common Cuckoo. yet opened, and its neck seemed too weak to support the weight of its head. . . . 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 burden down the bank. 1 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 in- cantation. It was horribly uncanny and gruesome! " Dr. Charles Creighton, in his Vncciuatioii and jfenner and elsewhere, has dealt with statements about the cuckoo's habits, and the peculiar points of structure in the young cuckoo, in a spirit of thorough scepticism to say the least. Here is one passage : " The young cuckoo's back, it seems, is especially designed for the lodgment and ejectment of eggs and young birds, for, different from other newly-hatched birds, its back from the scapula downwards is very broad, with a considerable depression in the middle. This depression seems formed by nature for the de- sign of giving a more secure lodgment to the egg of the hedge-sparrow or its young one when the young cuckoo is employed in removing either of them from the nest. When it is about twelve days old, this cavity is quite filled up and then the back assumes the shape of nesting birds in general. This unique and marvellous structural change, it need hardly be said, has no existence ; nor did Jenner seek to estab- lish this assertion in the only way in which it could be established, by a series of dissections. Moreover, he liimself inadvertently supplies the key to the illu- Woiiderfitl Structural Adaptation, 17 sion and the fanciful anatomy by his remark on the previous page of his wondrous tale of ejectment, that the young cuckoo ' makes a lodgment for the burden by elevating its elbows.' " ■■'• Now, did Dr. Charles Creighton himself make the series of dissections here desiderated, and is he, on the ground of that, ready to say that Montagu, Yarrell and Bishop Stanley, Mrs. Blackburn and her circle, Mr. John Hancock and his friends, and Mr. R. Kearton, are not only unworthy of credence for solemnly-given evidence, some of which will be im- mediately presented, but that, in short, they are all conscious and determined liars ? An answer will oblige. Other instances of wonderful structural adaptation in young birds, certainly not more essential to their preservation than is this in the young cuckoo, on the theory of its often itself getting rid of the legitimate birds, are to be found in many cases, and some of them shall be cited at once. The late Mr. John Hancock, a well-known North- umbrian ornithologist, reported observations almost entirely to the same effect as those of Mrs. Blackburn. In this case the nest was that of an accentor or hedge- sparrow. He v/rote : — " It is quite certain that the young are ejected very soon after they are hatched ; of this I have conclusive proof. On the 6th June, 1864, I observed a nest of the Hedge-Accentor, which con- * Mr. Howard Saunders says that this cavity on its back fills up after the twelfth day. Manual of Birds, p. 278. Does Mr. Saunders here speak from observation and experience and dis- section, or does he merely repeat the dogma of Jenner ? i8 Life Hisloiy of Conimon Cuckoo, tained five ej^^gs, four belonging to this bird and one to the cuckoo. I visited the nest again on the 8th June, and found three young hedge - accentors and the cuckoo hatched, one of the hedge-accentor's eggs having disappeared ; the three young hedge-accen- tors lay on one side of the nest, the cuckoo on the )ther by itself. On the morning of the following day 1 once more went to the nest ; the three accentors were gone, and the cuckoo was the sole occupant. One of the accentors lay dead on the ground below the nest. On the loth June I saw the foster parents feeding the cuckoo. " When the egg of the cuckoo is not hatched, the young of the foster birds are reared. In 1870, I met with a case in point ; the nest contp'.ed two eggs of the hedge-accentor and one of the cuckoo ; after a day or two the accentors were hatched. I continued to watch for several days, in the hope that the cuckoo's egg would be hatched, but it proved to oe addled. The parents fed their little brood with great attention and neither they nor the young took any notice of the unhatched egg, which lay sometimes above, and sometimes below the nestlings. "••■ Fourteen years later Mr. Hancock described obser- vations corresponding exactly to those of Mrs. Blackburn. He tells that he had often tried to find opportunities of observing this marvellous performance. " I began in June, 1884, ^t Oatlands, Surrey," he writes, " to search the grounds carefully for as many nests as I could find that were likely to have cuckoos' eggs in them, and was fortunate enough to discover * Catalogue of the Birds of Northumberland, pp. 26, 27. -4 At Oatltuids. 19 one in :i spot convenient for niakinj^ continued obser- vations on the 17th of June. The cuckoo's ef^g was ill the nest of a hedKe-accentor, containin^( four of its own ej^'f^s, and built in a bramble-bush near the bottom of the slopinj^ terrace at Oatlands. I tried the cuckoo's e^^j; and one of the hed{^e-accentor's in water to ascertain if they were fresh or setting. The former floated, denoting that it was setting ; the latter sinking to the botton was, of course, fresh. " On the 25th of June I examined the nest. No change had taken place. There were still the one cuckoo's egg in the nest and the four accentors. " On Friday, the 27th June, I looked at the nest at three o'clock in the afternoon and the cuckoo's egg was hatched and one of the accentors. At twenty- five minutes to six o'clock I looked at the nest again, and another accentor's egg was hatched. " On Saturday morning, 28th June, I rose early and went to the nest at twenty minutes to four o'clock a.m. All was quiet and the old bird on the nest. At two minutes past hve o'clock I saw into the nest. There were just as before the young cuckoo, the two young accentors, and the two eggs. A few minutes after five o'clock the young cuckoo attempted to put an egg out of the nest by getting it on its back in the most clumsy manner, but it did not succeed in getting the egg high enough to roll it over the edge of the nest. Immediately after this proceeding the old hedge-accentor came on to the edge of the nest and stooped down with its head into the nest and took some white matter into its mouth (I think ex- crement from the young birds) and swallowed it. [No doubt whatever it was this ; for my canaries and 20 Life History of Common Cuckoo. other caged birds made it a strict point of duty after feedinfj the younf^ in the earlier staj^es to wait and see if they needed to do such service as this, and a wonderful accommodation to necessity it is.] " The old bird went on to the nest and off af.N'iin four or five times in about two hours. 1 left for breakfast at eight o'clock, the old bird sitting on the nest. Returned at half-past eight. The old bird was off the nest, and the young and eggs as before lying (juiet at the bottom of the nest. . . . (She was off for about ten minutes now, and then again afterwards). When off this last time an accentor's egg was put on to the edge of the nest by the young cuckoo in my presence. This was at half- past ten. The egg rested on the edge of the nest for some time, and then it fell down into the bush by the movements of the old bird on the edge of the nest. The cuckoo then fell to the bottom of the nest, apparently in a very agitated state and overpowered or exhausted by the effort. The mother then returned, . . . but remained a very short time on the nest and seemed very uneasy, raising herself and standing in the nest. The cuckoo seemed to be increasing in bulk and was much agitated, lying at the bottom of the nest. The two young accentors lay motionless at the bottom of the nest, whilst the cuckoo kept moving its wings like hands as if to excite or stir its companions into action. In about twenty minutes the cuckoo made two desperate attempts to get one of the young accentors flung over the edge of the nest, but failed, for when it got the young one to the top it fell back again into the bottom of the nest. Another unsuccessful stiuggle took place when the mother was on the side of the 1 " Wonderful and Uiinccountahle." 21 nest. About eleven o'clock the first youn/,' accentor was put over the edf^e of the nest exactly as illus- trated by Mrs. Hlackburn. The mother was present, but took no notice of the affair (^'oinj,' on, but looked on calmly. The second ef^j; was pushed out at one p.m., in the presence of myself. Miss .Xbbs, and my sister, whom I had specially invited to come and see the proceediuf^s of the young cuckoo. The last and fourth of the lot we left in the hands of the destroyer. It was sitting almost on the back of the cuckoo, which had had one try to put it over the edge of the. nest, but had failed. At half-past three when we returned to examine the nest, the young cuckoo was the sole occupant. " The first baby accentor which had been thrown on to the edge of the nest was still alive, so we put it into a white-throat's nest, which had four young ones about a day old, and from all appearances it will be properly attended to by its foster-parents. " The cuckoo's proceeding, as I saw it, is in my opinion the most wonderful and unaccountable piece of business that I ever witnessed in bird-life. . . . " These observations, though they may seem to be a repetition of the accounts given by Dr. Jenner, Montagu, Mrs. Blackburn, and other accurate obser- vers, are nevertheless necessary in thee-e days ; for, in the minds of some ornithologists, it seems to be still an undecided question — how the young cuckoo gets the young of its foster-parents from the nest ! I have before had an opportunity of ascertaining the fact, and expressing my full belief in the accounts given by Dr. jenner. Col. Montagu and others, as stated in my catalogue, (p. 26), but till last summer I 22 Life History of Common Cuckoo. had not had a successful opportunity of watchin;^ t^3 whole process as carefully as I was able to do on that occasion, " Since these observations were made, my atten- tion has been called to the following; quotation from Mr. Henry Seebohm's History of British Birds, (vol. ii, p. 383) : — ' It has been said, on what appears to be incontestable evidence, that the young cuckvoi^, scon after it is hatched, ejects the young or eggs from the nest by hoisting them on its back ; but one feels in- clined to class these narrntives with the equally well authenticated stories of .he chance in Our Dr. A. E. Brehms Anecdote. 25 i Stunmer Mif^rauts, of reminding him that the same observations had already been recorded by Jenner, MontagU; Blackwall, Durham Weir, and Adolf Mi'iller. But Mr. Gould's, from the extracts above, was a re-conversion. In 1S37, he, like yet bigger men, implicitly followed Jenner ; in 1873 alongside a drawing of the young cuckoo in the act of ejecting the true young, he actually set down a caveat against this charge and explained the facts differently, and then, later, was reconverted to his opinion of 1837. His case here was an exact illustration of Tennyson's words : — " It is not true that second thoughts are best. But first aud third, which are a riper first." Tho necessity f^r complete success in extermina- tion of foster-birds' progeny on the cuckoo's plan may be found in this that when any of the true young are left, the proper instinct of the foster-parents will more or less assert itself. This has confirmation in the following anecdote from Dr. A. E. Brehm, told through the Ivev. A. C. Smith : " In June, 181 2, says ray father, a wren's nest was found on the manor of Prohlichen-wiederkunft, which cOiitained two young wrens and a cuckoo — qi'.ite an exceptional case ; the dome of the nest had preserved the young wrens from being ejected by the cuckoo. A friend of mine took the cuckoo when it was almost ready to Hy and, as is often done by bird fanciers, placed it in a cage, intending to bring it to me as soon as it was fledged. The foster-parents in this case, however, abandoned the foundling, and in two days it was found starved to death ; the wrens, 26 Life Histon of Common Cuckoo, having taken up their abode elsewhere with their own nesthngs, had not been able to feed both their own young and the cuckoo." ■■'■ I am perfeiftly familiar with the paragraph on the Cuckoo, which Mr. Waterton threw, rather inconsis- tently, into his essay on the Jay {Natural History Essays, ist series), and in which he ridiculed the idea of the young cuckoo having any such power. His remarks about the old bird always remaining on the nest during the whole of the day on which the chick is excluded from the shell, in order to protect it, wants qualification ; there are, as we shall specially see, reasons why she must sometimes leave the nest on that day, and even when cleaning and drying the young bird she must be on the edge of the nest, not sitting on it strictly. But even though we admitted that Mr. Waterton was correct here as regards normal cases, it certainly is not true when a young cuckoo has been hatched ; for somehow or other he has the pov\er not to let her do so, as comes out well in Mr. J. Hancock's observations, and is amply con- firmed by my own ; and this, on the very first day to a certain degree, and yet more on the second or third day: when generally he wishes to begin more definite operations. I am quite familiar, too, with the bit in the essay on " the Wren, the Hedgesparrow, and the Robin " (second series), which is nothing more nor less than a rough condensed repetition of what he had said as above. Mr. Waterton was so good an observer and so true a lover of the birds that I should indeed be sorry were I forced to expose some of his errors and shortcomings • Zoologist, May, 1873. iMr. WatertoHS Way. 27 about birds and other creatures, which usually arose from his accepting some preconceived idea, and trying to make all facts bend to it ; and one of these is a certain dogmatic statement in one place about the cayman. And Waterton, too, was very fond of a practical joke, as his "manlike monster" clearly proves, still misleading good men and true. Mr. Waterton's deliverance, cited by Dr. Charles Creighton, as authoritative and final, vv-as made to bear far more weight than it was in any way entitled to. Dr. Creighton, in a burst of triumphant scepti- cism, in effect, cries out : "If this takes place why are we not presented with photographs of it ? — thit is the one way to convince us. As for artists like Mrs. IJlackburn, they can draw what they please — all out of their own brains : we can't trust them, or such as them." Well, just as this book was being put into type, comes the Feathered World, of 14th July, 1899, with two photos of young cuckoos throwing out ^•oung birds, due to the patience, care and well-directed enthusiasm of Mr. John Craig — whom all the world will thank for so far decisively setting this matter at rest. It is not so easy to do a thing of this sort — a nest must be chosen, carefully watched, and the psychologic moment seized without any faltering — everything ready and nothing wanting. Mr. J. P. Miller's photographs are decisive enough for the most sceptical, and anew demonstrate that to carry a preju- dice against vaccination and its founder to the point of rejecting reasonable evidence on a question of Natural History is at all events not a very scientific or philosophical procedure. 2iS Life History of Coiniitoii Cuckoo. " We proceeded to the nest," says Mr. Craij,', " and placed the young yellow-hammer I had found and taken with me in it, beside the young cuckoo. After a few minutes delay, the cuckoo hoisted the yellow-hammer on its back and climbed up the side of the nest backwards and shot the bird over the nest. We put the bird into the nest again when the cuckoo repeated the operation. Six snapshots were taken " (two of which, by the great kindness of Mrs. Comyns- Lewer, and Mr. Craig and Mr. J. Peat Millar we are enabled to give) " with the young cuckoo on the top of the nest ejecting a yellow-hammer from a meadow- pipit's nest, one of them was taken with the yellow- hammer lying atside the nest, the other three were taken in diftert .'i stages in the nest. So far as I am aware, these are the first snap-shots that have been taken of a young cuckoo ejecting a young bird from the nest. The cuckoo was about (we days old, and the yellow-hammer about three or four at the time that the snap-shots were taken. " On June 15, 1899, I saw another pipit's nest, con- taining a cuckoo's egg and four pipits' eggs. I broke one of the latter's eggs, but the egg had only been sat upon a day or two. I again visited the nest on June 14th, but none of the eggs were hatched. I again visited the nest the following day, when the cuckoo had hatched, and one of the nest-owner's eggs was lying outside the nest. I put the egg back into the nest again. The cuckoo was not twenty-four hours old. I again visited the nest on the following day along with Mr. J. Peat Millar, when we found tne cuckoo the sole occupant, and the three pipits' eggs lying outside the nest. We placed one of the eggs in VP rcKiiii i-.:ki M\(i noim; iuku ikum ni;si ( [ ). I( Kdci K.ll.i llNi: Vnl \ii MKh I i;(i.\| M.^ I (J). 28. " No ChlliVs PUiyr 29 the nest, when the cuckoo immediately commenced to hoist the egg on its back and began to climb, and when near the top of the nest a snap-shot was taken, but, owing to a small tin having slipped, Mr. Millar had to expose the plate, which was spoiled in trying to take another snapshot. The bird then became extremely restless, and though somewhfa exhausted, it made several attempts to reach the top of the nest with its burden, but failed. " 1 again visited the nest on the following day, and put an egg into it, but the bird was not inclined to begin operations. I dropped another egg into the nest, when it immediately began to hoist one of them on its back, and carried it to the edge of tne nest and threw it out. But there was no snap-shot taken as Mr. Millar had to attend to his business at home, Saturday being a busy day with him. We again visited the nest on June 19th, but the bird would on no account commence operations, though we put four eggs into the nest, showing nothing of the restless- ness that it had done three days before. " I have spared no e(fort to prove my case and make a clean sweep of my opponents." Mr. Craig's observation of the nest with two young cuckoos in it is in i'avour of the stronger young cuckoo throwing the weaker one out. *' It was about four miles from where I reside, and the other one about *.hree miles ; so that every time I visited the nest of the former I had to walk eight miles ; and of the latter about six miles, which amounted to more than one hundred miles, which was no child s play on these warm summer evenings in June.'" 30 Life History of Coninioii Ciickon. Mr. Craig's observations go to support the idea that the cuckoo will not begin operations after five days old. Mr. Craig tested this in various ways, putting different young birds into the cuckoo's nest before the cuckoo's fifth day, and these were invariably thrown out; but, after the fifth day, the cuckoo loses the desire to operate on what is put l>eside it, as was proved by the fact that a cuckoo of about ten days allowed a hedgespar'ow of about eight days to lie quietly beside it. The editress of the Feathered World makes his note on Mr. Craig's article and snapshots : " When the outline of the young cuckoo in the two pictures is once grasped one can see how well suited for its fell purpose is the position it takes up. Head well down, legs wide apart gripping either side of the nest, wings outstretched to prevent any slipping back sideways, the unfortunate victim well poised on its broad back, the curious depression in which serves to steady it — the attitude is perfect for accomplishing the final act in the curious tragedy of nature by which a cuckoo is reared at the expense of the family of its foster-parents. My only regret is that want of time did not admit of my suggesting to Messrs. Craig and Millar an enlargement of these sharp little negatives, v/hich, when seen under a magnifying glass, reveal to an even greater extent the murderous method of the nestling cuckoo, so well described by Mr. Craig in his interesting article." There are various and conflicting theories about the cuckoo's power in adapting its eggs to the nests in which it drops them and also regarding the process followed, but it is undoubted that cuckoos' eggs vary m lVi'i,!^hl of Cuckoos' Iii(i{s. 31 throuf,'h a wider ran^'e of colour than those of ai.y other bird. As to size, the ef,'gs are on an average only one- fourth of that expected from the size of the bird, though in weight, as the careful tests of Mr. Hidwell as well as my own undoubtedly show, the eggs are much heavier than any eggs of the same size. Dr. Ray, too, dwells on the weight of shell of egg of Cnctilns cniionis. This fact would be remarkable enough even did it not bear on remarkable facts beyond it. The habits of the foster-birds as to nests vary so vastly that it is hardly credible the young of one species could thrive in all — in open nests, in domed nests, nests hung over water or moist places as with the Reed-wren and Sed.i^^e-warbler, nests high in trees, nests low in shrubs or even on the ground like those of the nightingales and larks. A list of 120 species in which cuckoos' eggs have been found is published by Mr. P>idwell in the Bulletin of the British Oniithologists' Club for March, 1896. But adaptation and resource are everywhere con- spicuous. The cuckoo, when he cannot find his favourite nests, makes others, and apparently un- promising ones, suit him equally well." * The most notable in regard >.., numbers of eggs from nests of each species, in his collection of over 900, being: — i, Hedge- sparrow, 74 ; 2, Redbreasts, 65 ; 3. Reed-warblers, 62 ; 4, Mea- dow-pipits, 49 ; 5, Garden-warblers, 47 ; C>, Sedge-warblers, 41 ; 7, White-Throat, 38 ; 8, Pied Wagtail, 34 ; 9, Blackcap, a ; 10, Tree-pipit, 33 ; 11, White Wagtail, 32 ; 12, Red-backed Shrike, 25 ; 13, Yellow Hunting, 23. N.B.- Mr. Bidwell tells me that among the 74 from Accentors' nests was a blue egg, taken by Mr. Robert H. Read, a well-known and reliable ornithologist. '!% 32 Life Hhtory of Conimon Cuckoo. Mr. Cecil Smith writes about Guernsey: "Tree and meadow - pipits, skylarks and stonechats, from their numbers and the numbers of their nests, must be the foster-parents most usually selected in the Vale of Guernsey ; other favourites, such as wag- tails, hedge - sparrows, and robins, being compara- tively scarce in that part of the island. •■ The Vale of Guernsey is singular in its lack of trees — it is devoted to gardening and culture of the vine ;— flat and over considerable spaces gorse-clad, it was at one time unde*" water. As one other indi' a of the wide range and adaptability of the c . we may note that Mr. Robert Collett in his Bin! Life in Anfic Norway puts Cnculns canorns among the breeding species of Arctic Norway. Mr. I'cpham found Ciiciilits cmionts on the Yenisei. It arrived on May 22 and soon became common ; and there its cry is " Hoo, hoo," a sound which Seebohm attributed to the Himalayan Cuckoo. " The forest round Yeniseisk is full of cuckoos, but we soon left them behind us." i I ••if ■..'■A- III. The rule laid down for birds generally with regard to helplessness after hatching is not without very marked exceptions, even in cases where the young are not, as in the case of partridges, water-hens, coots, etc., able to move legs and run freely, and have what is strictly no period of helplessness proper after * Birds of (jueriisfv, p. d, |rs. ice in |er- )n- Mr. Seebulnns Reproductions. 51 eggs of one colour. This can only be surmised by analogy, though the one fact bearing on the question is where two cuckoo's eggs were found in the same nest [and; which differed greatly. More might have been learnt from the incident, had it been known for certain whether the eggs were laid by the same or different birds. There is a general tendency in the habits of animals to become hereditary, and it seems not unreasonable to suppose that a cuckoo which has once laid its egg in the nest of any particular species should continue to do so, and that the young cuckoo should also continue the practice in after years." Mr. Seebohm's reproductions of cuckoo's eggs, however, show that this writer was in the greatest possible error in declarmg the cuckoo's eggs to be in- variably brown, which suggests the idea that, while right on some points, he wrote from imperfect know- ledge in others, and was not himself a close observer. Mr. liidwell's list gives 120 species in the nests of which the cuckoo drops its eggs, and in the Zoologist for 18(83 ^^^ writes that " five eggs are said to be laid in the season by the cuckoo at intervals of seven or eight days ; " but this is surely an exaggeration. It is probable, howe\er, that the cuckoo has more power than other birds in retaining perfect eggs in the ovary -a point supported by a fact thus given by Mr, J. 11. (iurney : ■' Our .Norwich bird-stuiTers have on two or three occasions taken perfect eggs out of cuckoos, which indicates some latent power of retaining them in the ovarium — a power long ago suspected by Montagu." Mr. I^omanes, in his Aniiiial Intelligence, writes in a note at the end of his chapter on " Bird Intelli- gence : " 52 Life History of Common Cuckoo. " Since goin<^ to press, I have seen, through the kindness of Mr. Seehohni, some specimens of cuckoo's eggs coloured in imitation of those belonging to the birds in the nests of which they are laid. There can be no question about the imitation." Dr. Baldamus, in Nauiiiaiiiiin, vol. for 1863-4, (P* 414), gives sixteen coloured drawings of eggs of com- mon cuckoo— all very different indeed, from the blue of the redstart and hedge-sparrow and pied tly-catcher to the brown-blotched eggs of larks and pipits. The late-lamented Mr. Henry Seebohm, on the whole a careful observer, despite Professor Newton's depreciation, as well as an exquisite writer, in his plates of birds' eggs, appended to his History of British Birds, gives fifteen cuckoo's eggs which vary through a wide range, one or other of which might fairly simulate the eggs of the hedge-sparrows, red- starts, pipits, fly-catchers, warblers, little buntings, wagtails, tits, and some of the finches, wrens, and blackcaps. One of these has undoubtedly a blue tint which would make it admirably adapted to impose even upon the redstart, or the pied fly-catcher, or the accentor — pace Mr. Luke Ellis, who in the Echo some years ago, ridiculed the idea tiiat a cuckoo could lay a blue egg. l>ut Mr. Seebohm was of another mind. He wrote : "A cuckoo which lays blue eggs always lays blue eggs, and its descendants will continue to lay blue eggs ; it was probably hatched in a nest containing blue eggs, and will, to the best of its ability, intrust the care of its eggs to foster-parents of the same species as those which tended it in its infancy. . . . It is very seldom that the cuckoo's egg is found witli- p. n- >ie i Piiillc's Collection. 53 out small round dark markinj^s, like fly spots. ... I have taken a younj^ cuckoo out of a blue egg on which they were so pale as almost to escape notice.'"' Mr. Dresser gives the following very interesting passage from Mr, Seebohm's notes on Mr. Pralle's collection at Hildesheini : " In this collection are twelve blue cuckoo's eggs, some uniforin, unspotted, whereas others ha\e faint spots, like liy spots, here and there. The first of these was in a nest of Sa.vicold sttipaziiid, and is blue, with a few Hy spots; No. 2 ditto; Nos. 3 and 4 are unspotted blue, and are each with Hve eggs of Phyl- loscopns sibilntrix ; No. 5 is with three eggs of Ritticilln plicenicunts, and No. 7 with three eggs of the same species, this latter egg being blue, with a few faint fly spots; Nos. 8, y, 10, 11, 12 are all blue, witli traces of spots, and are all with four or six eggs of Riiticillii phu'iiiciirus except the last which was found with only one egg of that species." t Mr. J. II. Gurney, in his admirable paper in the Norfolk and Suffolk Satiii-al History Society Journal, well says : " (Jur cuckoo lays blue eggs oftener than is thought, and Coccystcs jacobinus, a cuckc o inhabiting Africa and India, always lays them : to say blue cuckoo's eggs have never been met with in England is quite incorrect. ... In one nest we learn the blue egg was a very little larger than a hedge-sparrow's, but it produced a cuckoo, wliicli only shores how easily they may be passed over." [Italics are mine.j In the second volume of Dr. Bowdler Sharpe's f * P J«4. \ol. i- t Binh 0/ Europe, lui loc. 54 • ^-'(/is History of Common Cuckoo, Handbook of British Birds, we find him following Mr. Seebohin in the idea that the cuckoo which lays blue egf^s had itself come from a blue ef,'g, and always lays blue egfjs, and so with the other coloured ej,'g-layinj:f cuckoos. Hut this seems to carry the great difficulty only one short step further back. How did the cuckoos get differentiated into different coloured egg -layers ? It could not have been before the habit had been formed of putting the eggs into other birds' nests. If the cuckoos, then, became at one step definitely classed as blue egg-layers, fly-spotted blue egg -layers, light -brown blotched egg -layers, or dark -brown blotched, or lark -like egg -layers, and so on, is that not even as much a mystery as though \\e were to allow some individual variation in the coloration of eggs ? Let anybody look at the fifteen different eggs of the cuckoo carefully engraved and coloured in the supplement of Seebohm's British Birds, or at the sixteen coloured specimens from Dr. August Baldamus in Nnunuviuia, and he will admit that something wholly unexampled and exceptional must apply to a class of birds producing such varied eggs. The problems connected with the cuckoo are not yet by any means settled ; so there is an interest- ing field of observation and incjuiry still left open for any ambitious young naturalist. Among the blue eggs of Mr. Fralle's collection, Mr. Seebohm speaks of blue eggs uniform, unspotted, and of others with spots, — faint spots, like fly-spots. Now, what I wish to ask on this head is, are the uni- form blue eggs confined to one bird or definite family of birds, and each of the variously fly-spotted eggs to another bird or class of birds. By this process we A Clear Rule Wniilai. 55 k1 k1 rs. should have another lot of different ej^gs, say, six to add to our differentiated cuckoos, and, following the same reasoning applied to all slight differences, we should have at least another half-dozen, thus bringing the number of known different egg-laying cuckoos up to at least nearly thirty. It would be a benefit if the supporters of the theory of different cuckoos for each diflerent egg would tell us at what point of difference you have assurance of the fixed and definite ma- ternity, so to speak. Some such rule of principle is much needed. Do the various ily-spots and different distnl)ution of fly-spots (for in some cases they are freely and almost equally scattered at one end, and in others drawn into a sort of faint ring between the end of the egg and the part where it begins to contract), each trace themselves to definite cuckoos ; or at what point does the process end ? We know perfectly well that when closely looked at there is no case in which any birds' eggs are exactly alike, and that sometimes the eggs of one clutch — more especially of certain birds — will so markedly differ from each other as to spots and arrangement of spots as to look rather a motley group ; and if in the case of the cuckoo no variety is to be allowed to the female here, we want to have some clear rule about it. We know nothing definite about what determines these differences, but our point here is, that if you go the whole hog, as you ought to do, about your different egg-laying cuckoos, you foist on the individual layers a uni- formity such as is found in no other bird — a thing adding another mystery to the mysteries about the cuckoo and its eggs. In case of any dispute, here are Dr. Bowdler Sharpe's own words : 5^ /-'/(' llistovy of Coiiinioii Ciickwo, " It is supposed that the coldutation of tlie cuckoo's ef(g is an Iwin/iturv faculty, ami that each female cuckoo lays a particular type of cjf^. This is in all probability the case, and cuckoos which lay blue ef^^^^s come of a stock which has been hatched from blue eggs, and will contiime to lay them and licpos'tt tlieiii in the nest of soine blm'-e<^!(l(t\'iii!^ species." ' Set this against the following: "In none of the hedge-sparrows' nests, for instance, ha\e we a blue cuc'oo'segg." Another authority puts it that canorus " will by preference lay in the nest of the species which brought her up." The great comparative number of l)lue cuckoos" eggs laid in the nests of birds with brown-blotched and even lark-like eggs, and, more still, eggs like those of the nightingale, suffices to prove that there must be so very many ex- ceptions to the rule laid down in the words italicised above that it is completely invalidated, and so far as that point is concerned cannot be said to give force to the reason for the production of blue eggs in certain families of the cuckoo. It is a very good theoretic reason to justify, as it were, a hard and fast theory of radical differentiation of cuckoos into blue egg-laying and other egg-laying families ; but facts are against it clearly enough ; seeing that in so many instances the blue eggs are not laid in the nest of some blue egg- laying species — and thence a mere waste of more specialised colouration — since, surely, it woukl have been a gain to have better matched the eggs, were it only that bird-nesters and even ornithologists might have been more completely and longer deceived ; though it is difficult to see how if, in limes past, blue * Allen's Handbook, ii, p. 28 Mr. llouuird Sdiinderx's Vie^i'. 57 lo S (ale e^f^s of the cuckoo were as liberally laid ainoiif^ clutches of a wholly diCferent colour, as they are now, Enf,'Iish ornitholofi^ists could have gone on from the days of Jenner down to those of Set^hohni and IClwes —about a whole century — and denied that any cuckoo whatever laid blue ef,'f,'s. It is almost incomprcjhen- sible that such a ccmdition of thinjis could have (fone on -unless indeed the facts were different in the past from what they are now and have been for several recent years, when one of the nio&t extraordinary thinL(s has been the ai)pearance of cuckoos' blue e}^f,'s not with blue ej^i^^s, but with e^^f^'s of all other and con- trasted colours, e\eii in the nest of the ni^htinj^ale. If this had been so invariably for ni),di a hundred years, what utterly blind bogf,ders luiLjlish ornitholo- gists must indeed have been ! I'\irther still, Mr. Howard Saunders says (right in teeth of Dr. Howdler Sharpe's deliverance above) that eggs of a pale blue have been founil, though not iiiriiri^f" on was set at rest by two English ornithologists, Mr. BIkc Cuckoos' Ei^i^s. 67 Henry Seehohiii and Mr. H. J. Elwes, who were col- lectin^f tOf,'ether in MoUand, and wlio received a nest of redstart's ej^'gs, one of which, larger than the rest, was said to be that of a cuckoo. The eggs proved to be hard set with well formed young inside. 'J'hey were alike blue in colour, but in trying to blow the larger egg, the foot of the little bird, a zygodactyle foot, protruded from the whole, and effectually proved that the tiny occupant was a veritable cuckoo."''' And Dr. Bowdler Sharpe tells of the experience of his friend, Mr. C. i->ygra\e Wharton, who discovered a nest of the sedge warbler, with cuckoo's eggs in it, only distinguished from the true eggs by being larger ; and some days afterwards he found an egg precisely this same sedge-warbler type in the nest of a reed- bunting, whose eggs are very different. This seemed to show that the egg laid by the cuckoo was like that of the sedge-warbler, and that on the first occasion the cuckoo had found the matching nest ready to hand, but, in the case of the second egg, no sedge warbler in the neighbourhood had been found with a nest ready, and so the cuckoo .vas forced to put it into the nest of the reed-bunting. J>ut, unfortunately, as we think. Dr. Bowdler Sharpe does not press forward certain facts that would have still further strengthened his position here. On another page we find him saying : "In none of the hedge-sparrows' nests have we a lilue cuckoo's egg, and it is curious to find an egg like that of a skylark or a tree-pipit deposited in the nest * " The .dygodactyle foot," as said already, simply means that the bird has two toes to the front and two to the back a point in which but a limited group of birds any way resemble 't. 68 Life History i>/ Comiiidii Cuckoo. of a warbler or chiff-chaff — the e^fi^s of it are so differently coloured that the sombre cuckoo's e^^'^ lies in strilidueirs exhibit-on. * Hardhook, ii, p. 28. i Dictionary of Birds, i, p t2i "Now, this is not correct : Mr. Hrine, as we have seen, declared the finding of such scverdl times, and in the specific case referred to there were tivo cuckoos' t'iTgs one as dark bhie as the hed^;e-sparrow's, the other h;,'hter. If Mr. Brine was to be believed about one, he should ha\e been believed about the rest, or else very distinct reasons given why he was believed about the one and not about the others Dis- crimination is good ; but picking and choosing with birds art; s(jnietimes not so good.j Mr. B'uiu'tll's Risitlts. 6(, Mr. liidwcU has found tho e<;},' of the cuckoo in the nest of the reed-warbler twenty-two or twenty-three feet from the f^round, and I ha\e found it at even a greater height in that of the jay and wood-pif^eon. Nor is this. accorcHn^^ to Mr. IMdwell- view, any accidental or occasional case, since he holds that cuckoos which lay i'\i,\^v m nests hi<,'h in trees come of a class which always do so — a point in which I for one am inclined to aj^aee with him. These nests are so remoxed from the examination of the i/rdinary boy bird nester that lie is little likely to examine carefully or exhausti\ely all such nests in a j,nven area. In this fact alone we have a suj,'<,^estion of a much wider deposition of cuckoos' ef^j^s than is usually conceived — and this the more especially — and it needs to be emphasized here if, as Mr. l^)idwell holds, those cuc- koos wliich deposit their e^'gs in such lofty nests will always choose such nests if they are to be found within their beat. In the Zoolon'ist for 18M3 (pp. 372-3), Mr. l>idwell contributed a very interestinf,^ note, tellini; how, in a certain small area near his house at Richmond, he had found, in different nests of the reed-warbler, four cuckoo's ef^'f^s so alike in their markiu'^s that no ornitholo,t,'ist could doubt they were laid by the same bird: and lie drew certain inferences from his facts : (ij that the cuikoo does not always turn out one of the \ictim's ('|,'^,^s for her ej^;,^ ; (2) that a cuckoo will always use, if she can find it, the same class of nest to lay her ef.Tj^ in : ami (3) that the cuckoo does not wander far if she can Unci littin.i,^ nests to put her egj^s in ; and (4) that cuckoos that lay in high nests will always jnefer high nests, ;is in this case each 70 Life History of Common Cuckoo. nest that had a cuckoo's e<^^ in it " was hifjh and had to be climbed for ; " and (5) that the number of cuckoo's eii^s laid in a season is five. Mr. liidwell is very careful and e.\act usuallj', but here there arc a great number of mere assumptions : (i) the cuckoos' eggs laid in low nests would be more exposed to many enemies — bird-nesting boys and collectors, not to speak of vermin ; (2) he admits the possibility of other grounds that he could examine being used by the assumed identical cuckoo, and thus he has simply to suppose certain things ; and (3) after all, the iden- tification of the one cuckoo is mere inference from egg-markings and is an assumption — ^ no more. I should like to know if Mr. Hidwell purs'ied these same investigations on that area, as I do not find any record of them in the Zoologist for i(S84 ; and if he did, then, unfortunately, 1 have missed his report of it, and would be glad to know his later specific results in this little area ; but, so far as this writing of his goes, I do not regard either his assumed facts or his inferences as so entirely convincing as he seems to think them. VIII. Various theories have been advanced to account for the origin of these habits in the cuckoo. It is a very voracious feeder, and the food which it favours, hairy caterpillars — more especially those of the tiger-moth (Arctia eojd )> commonly known as the "woolly bear," — has become so scarce very often, through woods cut down and other changes, argue one set of natu- ralists, that it would not be able to satisfy itself and Another Mystery, 71 to provide for a brood also. The young of the ruckoo are so voracious that it has been observed to be hard work for a pair of foster-birds to satisfy the ravenous maw of one. Indeed it has been set down as an established fart that the youu}^ cuckoos stru^f<,de to eject eacli other from the nest if put tofjether, and the stronjfer survives, but this is not yet suffuicntly or tinally jiroved. 'I'houj;!! there has been much exa^;- f^eration about time between layinj^'s, the cuckoo, as we have decidedly seen, does not deposit her ef^j^s (luite so rapidly as some other birds. Whether this slower deposition of ej^^f^'s has been encouraj^ed by later habits, or was orij^nnal to the bird, may well be an open (piestion ; but in the former case you would have a very marked departure from general habit ; in the latter you have the survi\al of a species in lace of such drawbacks in its own habits and tendencies as is at least exceptional almost beyond belief. The whole (juestion of the migration of the young cuckoos later than the parents is one which also in- volves something like mystery. Had they from hatching lived along with their true parents, there vvoukl not have been so much to wonder at in their following them ; but having been so far reared apart, and having so far lived apart, their migration forms, perhaps, one of the strongest illustrations of the power of inherited instinct that we have. Inherited instinct ! Yes: if it were not that there is so much to suggest that the cuckoos were originally quite like other birds in all the points in which they now so much differ from them. In truth, nothing is more misleading than this word instinct. Unlike most other birds, the female cuckoos are, as IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // 1.0 I.I 11.25 1^ \}^ 2.0 If 1^ *- nil U 11.6 -I V] /a ^?1 7: >!S« '■T '/ PhotDgraphic Sciences Corporation 33 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14S80 (716) 872-4503 '^^ .^ ^4^f4^ ^ <^ ^ s\ € \ ^^ 72 Life History of Coniinoii Cuckoo. already said, in a great minority compared with the males ; so that in a sense there is hardly true ^latin<,^ T>is is another fact of the most sin<^ular character ; because, on one side, it suj^fjests that some explana- tion of the parasitic tendency in cuckoos may he found in the comparatively low development of the parts subservient to generation, the small eggs of some, and a consequent weakening of the parental impulses ; though this may be so far met by the fact that the males clearly suffer in this respect more than the females, and by this other and further fact, that some of the parasitic cuckoos, the species of Coccystes amongst them, stiii lay normally sized eggs. We found the following description of the conduct of the female cuckoo towards the males in one of the best authorities : " It not infrequently occurs that three or four males are in full chase of a female, who entices them on, and grants her favours to one after the other as they approach her ; after which each male will return to his own district. It appears also that not only does the male return year after year to the same locality, but the female — though she wanders about in search of various lovers when pairing — seems to affect a particular district, where she deposits her eggs in the most suitable nests she can find." '■'■'■ Pnit, if certain of the males thus return to their own districts, it is out of the question that they can attend on and aid the hen in the guarding of the nest from the foster-parents when she is intruding her egg and doing whatever is needful to secure its accept- ance. Dresser's Birds, ad he. A Peculiar Point. IX. 73 Hekk a very peculiar point arises regarding the migration of the young cuckoos from this country. Mr. Muirhead, in his Birds of Berwickshire, a truly good and beautiful book, says : " It is not likely t!iat the young instinctively know the route to be taken on migration, any more than a young, untrained homing pigeon knows the direction in which to Hy to reach its cote, when it is conveyed a long distance away from its native haunt." ■■'■ And yet, in face of this, we know that the elder cuckoos quit this country in large numbers in the end of July, and certainly go in the earlier part of August, consistently with the old rhyme : " July, lie may fly : August, go lie must." Mr. Aluirhead himself, at another place, says that young cuckoos are common in Scotland till the end of August, and some have in different seasons been found there in the beginning of September. They certainly migrated, but the question is, if Mr. Muir- head is right, how ? — if they had no intuitive notion of the route — how ? The old ones had all long gone, and, if no intuitive notion of route— once again — how ? The following paragraph appeared in the Daily Chronicle, of Sep. 6th, 1898 : " The Cuckoo in September. — The Rev. Selwyn C. Freer, High Ercall Vicarage, Wellington, Salop, writes, under date Sept. i : — 'It may interest some of your readers to know that a cuckoo was seen by * i. p- 326. 74 l^if^ History of Common Cuckoo. myself to-day quite distinctly twice ; the second time at a distance of not more than twenty yards. It must be rare that this early migrant is seen at so late a date in the year.' " It raised so many questions and suggested so many problems that I am thankful I was led to write to Mr. Freer asking about it. In answer Mr. Freer was so good as to write to me as follows : High Ercall Vicarage, Wellington, Salop. September 8, i8g8. My dear Sir, I was pleased to hear from you. I have long been familiar with your most interesting^ work on " German Life and Litera- ture," and have read some of your contributions to the Spectator. I have talked with an old forester to-day a man of about the average intelligence, whose statements were (juite decided, and 1 think may be relied on for their limited range. He said the cuckoo arrives here on April i6, generally, April 14 or 18 occa- sionally, sometimes a little later than April i8, if there v., a cold stormy spring. He said he had cirtninly never seen the old bird as late as September i. That on two or three occasions he had seen the young cuckoo in October. Once, many years ago, when working in a distant part of this parish, he had seen a young cuckoo constantly which remained till "nigh upo' Christmas" He said that it was the opinion of some men about here that the young birds did not leave at all, but he added that he had also heard some men " argy " that in the spring they " turned into throstles ! " Apart from this latter contribution to knowledge, may not there be something in the statement that the young cuckoo occasionally fails to migrate from this country ? May not the occasional very early appearance of the cuckoo (my brother saw one this year in Somerset in February) be Yontj Cuckoos not Migrating. 75 accounted for, not by an unusually early arrival, but by the fact that the supposed early visitor was a young bird who failed to migrate at all in the previous autumn, and who survived a mild winter in a sheltered neighbourhood ? If this were so, it would seem to indicate a failure in instinct, or an incipient variety in instinct, no '-jstined to establish itself under existing conditions, which would not be out of harmony with the apparently somewhat unstable, or at least variable, nature of the instinct of the cuckoo tribe. I will try to find out anything more I can about the cuckoos here, where they are exceptionally numerous, so far as my observation goes. If you can tell me of any point on which information would be desired, I will try to investigate it. With sincere desire to be of any service that lies in my power. I remain. Yours faithfully, S. C. Freer. I'.S.— May I add that if you are ever in Salop it would be a great pleasure to me if you could find your way to Eiall. I have nothing indeed in the ornithological line, but have some good American fossils, and a considerable collection of American Indian antiquities, embracing amongst them some rare stone implements, and other ethnological iota. Mr. Freer's suggestion that some of the young cuckoos may wholly fail to migrate, is well worth consideration, and has led me to put tog^sther possi- bilities—in fact, to frame a kind of theory on the matter. We know that, though the cuckoo prefers for its eggs the nestr of insectivorous birds, it never- theless does occasionally — nay more frequently than is believed, drop its eggs into nests of seed or fruit- eating birds ; and that with their feeding the young cuckoos flourish equally well as with the strict insect diet — another remarkable fact. This would do some- ~6 Life History of Coiiiiiuiii Cuckoo. thing towards forininj:! a taste for seed or fn it or berries, and in sheltered, protected corners, it is quite possible that a very late young cuckoo, or a cuckoo which had but imperfectly moulted the wing feathers might pull through, following in the footsteps of our own feathered residents. In this, inde'^d, it would be but following closely the example of the meadow-pipit and some other birds it favours for foster parents, which, with nice adaptability, have recourse to seeds, berries and fruits in winter. Even in the case of the accentor you have a bird whose staple in sununer and autumn is insects, but in winter and spring it adopts an almost entirely seed or berry diet. The observation of out-of-door people, like Mr. Freer's forester, of young cuckoos " nigh upo' Christ- mas " would be thus explained, and made, in fact, consistent with a general principle, viz., that cuckoos reared in nests of seed and berry eating birds, or, indeed, of insect eaters, that become seed eaters in winter might, more especially if imperfectly winged, without any very rude shock to a former experience in food, maintain themselves through the winter in mild situations and in mild seasons. Of course, this could not be the case with those bred of purely insecti- vorous birds — the whole of the available life in that line having been shut up. We read in the Echo of October 20, having missed the correspondence on which it is based, the following : " Can the cuckoo be heard in October, as someone at Bodington, in Dorsetshire, has recently claimed to have heard it ? A correspondent suggests that the Cases Uucxplniiietl. 77 bird was a sparrow-hawk, a species that is sometimes mistaken for the cuckoo."' ]^ut in tlie case of a bird where the migratory in- stinct is so strong, and in any case where this instinct failed to act, some reason must be found in the ex- ceptional physical condition of the bird which led it to brave the rigours of winter here instead of to attempt migration— some defect of wing feathers or power of flight. The food element is in all such (piestions a most important one. This would account for what we are constantly hearing of the cries of cuckoos at dates so early that no ornithologist can believe that cuckoos had then returned from migration. Other cases there are an- alogous and at present wholly unexplained. There is, for example, that of the corncrake, or landrail, where, considering the defect of wing-strength, the persistent migration is wonderful, and the instinct to it is as powerful in view of its drawbacks as in any bird ; yet in many districts landrails remain and skulk about here through the winter, and of this we know a case the year before last in Essex. F r PART II. FURTHER STRANGE TRAITS AND SOME DEFINITE RESULTS. Use of Iniiinlive Element. Hi X. Dr. Howdi.ijr Sharpk tells a story which illustrates well one use of the imitative element in the cuckoo. The male bird is striped and barred in the breast and is in head and expression very hawk-like— an aspect he can emphasize by mode of flif,'ht, etc. On one occasion a friend of his was desirous to observe a whincliat which was busy in the process of laying its eggs. The friend sat down in a protected corner and ren- lined perfectly still and quiet, and what was his surprise very soon to see a female cuckoo come near and hide herself in the long grass. Then, in a very little time, the male cuckoo came and Hew round and round, putting on his most hawk-liKe expression ; the whinchats were frightened and flew off, the male cuckoo after them. This furnished a line opportunity for the female cuckoo to deposit her egg in the nest of the whinchats which ere long re- turned, of course, to do the needful, foolish little simpletons, for the egg of the would-be hawk. Here is a case, said Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, where the resem- blance of the male cuckoo to the hawk was clearly of use to it. But more may be suggested by this than Dr. Howdler Sharpe intends or foresaw. All this was scarcely needed, surely, to allow the hen-cuckoo to drop into the nest an egg with her bill— the work of a moment. But perhaps she had more to do. Mr. E. Blyth believed that the caiiorns, when she deposited her egg, did either destroy or turn out some of tht legitimate eggs of the nest, and he goes on to say : " From many experiments which I have tried, 1 I 82 Further Fints niul some Results, ha\e found that, {^eiK^'^ally, in each case when a stranj^'e e