The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1881-06-30
THE True Story Of the Cuckoo.


Our correspondent whose interesting
communication on cuckoo lore appeared
last week is at fault in stating that the
young cuckoo turns out its fellow-nest-
Gngs from q love of supremacy, and that
the young birds expelled are smaller than
itself. Being usually Matched before the
cuckoo, they are generally of equal size,
and rather larger than the intruder; and
their expulsion is necessary for his due
nourishment by the miniature foster
parent. In fact, when, as sometimes
happens, two cuckoos are Matched In one
nest, they endeavor each to expel the
other; and In one case observed by Herr
Adolph Muller, and described in Der
ZooLogische Garten for October, 1868,
the smaller succeeded in expelling the
larger. But we will let Mrs. Blackburn
relate her own account of what she saw:
The nest (Which we watched last June,
after finding the cuckoo's egg in it, was
that of the common meadow-pipit fitlark,
mosscheepesl, and had two pipit's eggs
beside that of the cuckoo. 1t was below
a heather-bush, on the declivity of a
low, abrupt bank Oh a Highland hillside
in Moidart.
At one visit the pipits were found to
be Matched, but not the cuckoo. At the
next visit, which was after an interval of
forty-eight hours, we found the young
cuckoo alone in the nest, and both the
young pipits lying down the bank, about
ten inches from the margin of the nest,
but quite lively after being warmed in
the hand. They were replaced In the
nest beside the cuckoo, which struggled
about till it got its back under one of
them, when it climbed backward directly
up the open side of the nest, and pitched
the pipit from its back on to the edge.
1t then stood quite upright on its legs,
which were straddled wide apart, with
the claws firmly fixed half way down
the inside of the nest, among the inter
lacing fbers of which the nest was
woven; and, stretching its wings apart
and backward, it elbowed the pipit fairly
over the margin SO far that its struggles
took it down the bank instead of back
into the nest.
After this the cuckoo stood a minute
or two, feeling back with its wings, as if
to make sure that the pipit was fairly
overheard, and then subsidedinto the
bottom of the nest.
As it was getting late, and the cuckoo
did not Immediately set to work on the
other nesting, I replaced the elected
OuO, anu WCab uOmC. OA IcbuIul1S ACAb
day, both nestlings were found dead and
cold; out of the nest. I replaced one of
fBhrm, but the cuckoo made no effort 10
get under and eject it, but settled itself
contentedly on the top of it. All this i
find accords accurately with Jenner's
description of what he saw. But what
struck me mostlwas this: the cuckoo was
perfectly naked, without a yestige of a
Heather, or.eveh a hint of future feathers;
its eyes were not yet opened, and its
neck seemed too weak to support the
weight of its head.
The pipits had ~well-developed quilts
on the wings and back, and had bright
eyes, partially open; yet they seemed
quite helpless under the manipulations
of the cuckoo, which looked much less
developed creature. The cuckoo's legs,
however, seemed very muscular, and it
appeared to feel about with its wings,
which were absolutely featherless, as
with hands, the spurious wing" (un.
usually large in %proportion) looking like
a spread-out thumb. The most singular
thing of all was the direct purpose with
whichthe blind little monster made for
the open side of the nest, the only part
where it could throw its burden down
the bank. ] think all the spectators felt
the sort of horror and awe at the apparent
i~nadequacy of the creatures intelligence
to its acts that one might have felt at
seeing a toothless bag raise a ghost by
an incarnation. It was horribly Gun
canny" and "grew-some."-Ibe Queen.