1 JULY 1922, Page 24

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Your correspondent, Mr.

Robert J. Wilson, in your issue of June 10th, seems to think it impossible that a cuckoo can lay an egg in a wren's nest. He may he interested in the following facts : In the summer of 1920 I watched a cuckoo come off her observation perch and settle on the top of a wren's nest in a gorse bush in my garden here. She had no egg in her beak. I watched her through binoculars from about twenty yards clisz lance, but could not make out that she did more than flap and " scrabble about " on top of the nest for some fifteen minutes. At the end of that time she flew off with an egg in her beak. When it was evident that she was not going to return I went and examined the nest. It contained only a cuckoo's egg, and the entrance to the nest seemed somewhat dishevelled and turned up. The cuckoo never went off the nest, so I assumed that she laid it in the nest.—I am, Sir, he., Lynwood, iroodham Lane, Woking. G. H. MAITLAND KING.