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136
My Studio Neighbors
·
W. Hamilton Gibson
18
Indeed,
the
presence
of
this
intruded
egg,
like
that
of
the
European
cuckoo
in
similar
fragile
nests,
has
given
rise
to
the
popular
belief
that
the
bird
must
resort
to
exceptional
means
in
these
instances.
Sir
William
Jardine,
for
instance,
in
an
editorial
foot-note
in
one
of
Gilbert
White's
pages,
remarks:
"It
is
a
curious
fact,
and
one,
I
believe,
not
hitherto
noticed
by
naturalists,
that
the
cuckoo
deposits
its
egg
in
the
nests
of
the
titlark,
robin,
and
wagtail
by
means
of
its
foot.
If
the
bird
sat
on
the
nest
while
the
egg
was
laid,
the
weight
of
its
body
would
crush
the
nest
and
cause
it
to
be
forsaken,
and
thus
one
of
the
ends
of
Providence
would
be
defeated.
I
have
found
the
eggs
of
the
cuckoo
in
the
nest
of
a
white-throat,
built
in
so
small
a
hole
in
a
garden
wall
that
it
was
absolutely
impossible
for
the
cuckoo
to
have
got
into
it."
In
the
absence
of
substantiation,
this,
at
best,
presumptive
evidence
is
discounted
by
the
well-attested
fact
that
the
cuckoo
has
frequently
been
shot
in
the
act
of
carrying
a
cuckoo's
egg
in
its
mouth,
and
there
is
on
record
an
authentic
account
of
a
cuckoo
which
was
observed
through
a
telescope
to
lay
her
egg
on
a
bank,
and
then
take
it
in
her
bill
and
deposit
it
in
the
nest
of
a
wagtail.
There
is
no
evidence
to
warrant
a
similar
resource
in
our
cow-bird,
though
the
inference
would
often
appear
irresistible,
did
we
not
know
that
Wilson
actually
saw
the
cow-bird
in
the
act
of
laying
in
the
diminutive
nest
of
a
red-eyed
vireo,
and
also
in
that
of
the
bluebird.
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