CUCKOOS AND THEIR HABITS
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sta,—In common fairness you must permit me to reply to a letter in last week's Spectator, typical of Mr. P. F. Bunyard. For fifteen years now envy and jealousy on the part of a few who ought to know better, aided by that very common failing, stupidity, of those less well informed, have delayed universal acceptance of the truth that the Cuckoo, Cuciilus eanorus, like every other bird, lays its eggs directly into the place where they are to be hatched. After acquiring the neces- sary knowledge, in 1921 I went to great trouble and t xpense to have filmed repeatedly the actual laying by a cuckoo, and abhorring as I always shall anything in the nature of a "fake," I would not allow any of the nests which we knew the cuckoo was about to use, to be opened up and prepared or " improved ". for photographic purposes. Notwithstanding, there is not one of the-dozens of spectators of these layings in 1921 (whose names are mentioned in The Cuckoo's Secret) who will do other than certify that the cuckoo actually did lay her egg directly lilt° the nest on every occasion.
Mr. Oliver Pike is naturally proud of the unique series of
film photographs he was enabled to obtain in 1922 through being my guest, and by having the free use of one of the only four slow-motion film cameras said to be then existent in this country. Nevertheless, Mr. Pike does himself, and the intel- ligence of my many friends who witnessed the layings, scant justice if he intended to imply in his recent illustrated article in Country Life that the film we took in 1921 without his aid does not satisfy all the unbiassed spectators of that film— and there were tens of thousands of them—that the Cuckoo on arrival at the nest on every occasion first picked up and held in her beak one of the eggs from the nest, whilst she laid her own egg in its place. That sequence of events cannot be confused by any honest person viewing the film.
Why will not Mr. Bunyard face up to these questions : (1) How does he expect any serious ornithologist to accept
a sketch of what he wants to illustrate as an accurate picture of a cuckoo depositing her egg into.a reed-warbler's nest, when he knows perfectly well that the only photographs he and his one-time friend, Mr. Scholey, ever obtained of a cuckoo in the performance of that act illustrated an article by Mr. Seholey several years ago in one of the well-known weekly journals, in which article Mr. Scholey described how Mr. Bunyard and he together watched the cuckoo actually lay her egg directly into the reed-warbler's, nest?
(2) Why does Mr. Bunyard carefully conceal the fact that Mr. Seholey will no longer support his (Mr. Bunyard's) statements ?
(3) Why does Mr. Bunyard, and any others of his way of
talking (I won't say thinking !) if still in existence, continue to refuse to relieve me of a very large sum of money which they have known for years they can do- by the production of evidence to the satisfaction of an independent body that a cuckoo ever touches its own egg with its beak ? For fourteen years or more now I have offered to wager any stun up to-
£500 to establish the universal acceptance of that truth.
For the reasons stated in my opening paragraph, I realise
that it will not be until after my death that it will be univer- sally accepted that the Cuckoo never uses her beak for the purpose of introducing her egg into the fosterer's nest. I am as certain that will ultimately be the accepted truth as I am that never again will 25 eggs be obtained from a cuckoo in a season. I do not wish to be arrogant, but I do wish to be
emphatic in this final statement of my views upon a subject to which I have given an immense amount of time and careful
Previous page
