The Cuckoo's Speed
Sitting in his garden a neighbour of mine saw with great 'distinctness at close quarters a cuckoo fly down to a hedge-sparrow's nest, stop there not more than a few seconds and fly away again with an egg in its beak. He was not sure of the important point in the great cuckoo controversy whether or no the cuckoo carries its own egg in its beak. The deposited egg (which of course bore no resemblance to the hedge-sparrow's "darling blue ") duly hatched and the young hedge-sparrows were thrown out by the young murderer almost at once. Mr. Edgar Chance, in his wonderful film, seemed to have proved that the cuckoo lays her egg directly into the nest, which she has found earlier. Ills evidence seems irrefutable ; but the process is incredibly quick. To lay the egg, turn round and pick up one of the victim's eggs within 40 seconds—the maximum allowed by this observer—certainly exceeds the speed limit.
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