The Cuckoo Mystery Made Plain.

Hokitika Guardian, 7 September 1922, Page 1

The Cuckoo Mystery Made Plain.

(By Oliver G. Pike, F.Z.S., F.It.P.S.) For more than 2,000 years naturalists have been puzzled as to liow the cuckoo actually placed her egg in the nest of the fostered. The usually accepted theory was that she laid it upon the ground, picked it up in her beak and carried it to the selected nest.

It was left to Mr Edgar Chance to discover how she did perform this feat, hut it .took him five years of the most patient and persevering field work to find out how it was done.

During the past few weeks I have lived in the company of the cuckoo, under the guidance of Mr Edgar Chance, and I have never seen anything quite so fascinating in the world. This painstaking field-naturalist has brought his observations to such a successful end that lie is now able to say, several days beforehand, in which nest the cuckoo will lay her egg, and also th o approximate time.

When you consider the large number of nests that there may be in the territory over which the bird roams, it seems to he a very wonderful feat to be able to forecast the cuckoo’s doings in tkis matter, yet I .watched the actual laying of the egg, on nine separate occasions, and never once did Mr Chance’s prophecy fail. But the only way to obtain a conclusive photograph was to open up the nest, and in that case there was a doubt that the cuckoo would use it.

However, a meadow pipit’s nest in which the cuckoo was expected to lay had the grass and gorse removed from the front, leaving a clear view for the camera. The “hide” was placed near, and I went inside and waited. Half an hour later I heard three sharp blasts on a whistle, which was a signal from one of the watchers thnt the cuckoo was approaching the nest. A moment later the beautiful bird arrived. She settled a few feet from the opened nest and seemd puzzled. When she had previously visited it a few days before, on her tour of inspection it was well concenled. However, she walked up to it looked in, and her doubt increased, for she now flew' away. She went straight to her observation perch about 150 yards away, took her points, and again glided direct to the opened nest. This time there was no hesitation, for slie at once picked up in her beak the pipit’s egg nearest to her, shuffled on to the nest, still holding the stolen egg in her beak, laid her own egg, and immediately flew away. The whole performance from the moment she arrived to th o time she left took just 10 seconds. The cuckoo’s secret was a secret no longer. For thousands of years she had kept it, hut my camera stole it her for all the world to see.- -Daily Mail London.