CUCKOOS AND THEIR HABITS
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Two very important admissions have now been made by Mr. Oliver G. Pike in Country Life for July 4th, 1938. He states in referring to Mr. Chance's original film of the cuckoo as shown at the Zoological Society's Library before the members of the British Ornithologists' Union and Club on November 9th, 1921, that it " did not -prove conclusively that the bird laid into the nest, because when she went to the several (meadow pipits) nests, her actions were hidden by foliage" (italics mine). I was present when the film was shown and immediately challenged Mr. Chance's claims. I also said practically the same as Mr. Pike now admits, adding that there was nothing to prove that the cuckoo did not regurgitate her egg into the pipits' nest immediately 'before she was supposed to have gone on- to the nest to lay. Mr. Pike now admits that cuckoos do not lay their eggs into the nest ; he describes it as a shooting effort, claiming that the egg is shot from the ovipositor into the nest, pre- sumably like a cork leaving a popgun. We are left to imagine at from what distance to the nest the " shooting " takes place. The whole suggestion is so palpably ridiculous that it is hardly worthy of a moment's consideration. Recent experiments made by Dr. Norman Joy and myself con- clusively proved that if the cuckoo deposited her eggs in this way, in nine cases out of ten the fosterer's egg would be damaged. I have seen a large number of cuckoos' eggs in situ, i.e., the cuckoo's egg together with those of the fosterer in the nest, and in not a single instance were there any of the latter damaged.
We are further informed by Mr. Pike that when Mr. Chance first put forward the absurd theory of normal oviposition it " came as a bombshell in the scientific world." That bomb was a wet squib compared with the six-inch shell that Mr. Pike has now dropped among ornithologists, who I am sure will attach the greatest importance to his con- fession, as we are all well aware that the theory of normal oviposition was originally based on the evidence of this film and the observations and claims recorded in The Cuckoo's Secret.
Finally we are informed that another film was made the following year " which records most faithfully every action of the cuckoo." Those who have seen this film are unanimous in their opinion, i.e., that it does not prove any more than the original film. Photographs from this film are reproduced in Country Life and it is claimed that the one at the bottom left-hand corner depicts the cuckoo laying directly into the nest. In my opinion she is doing nothing of the kind, the head is well down, an impossible position during ovipositiou. She is undoubtedly depositing the egg by regurgitation immediately before picking up the fosterer's egg. (A full explanation of the habit of regurgitation was given in The Spectator of July 20th, 1934.) As far as the actual deposition of the egg is concerned, photography has proved absolutely nothing, and I very much doubt whether it is possible for any camera to record exactly what we wish to see, i.e., the egg leaving the cuckoo. Photographers are apparently not satisfied with the evidence actually recorded by the camera ! They invariably rely more on their imagination than actual observation.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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