PREFACE
For more on cuckoos and human culture, see Mark Cocker and Richard Mabey, Birds Britannica (Chatto & Windus, 2005); Mark Cocker and David Tipling, Birds and People (Jonathan Cape, 2013); and Michael McCarthy, Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo (John Murray, 2009). The early reference to cuckoos by Hesiod is in M. L. West, Hesiod: Works & Days (Oxford University Press, 1978). The letters to The Times are in Kenneth Gregory, The First Cuckoo: Letters to The Times Since 1900 (Allen & Unwin, 1976). The account of the February cuckoo that was shot is from Michael Walters, A Concise History of Ornithology (Helm, 2003).
The poem by Jane Taylor is one in a set of songs, Friday Afternoons, by Benjamin Britten. The lines by Ted Hughes are from his poem ‘Cuckoo’; see his Collected Poems, edited by Paul Keegan (Faber and Faber, 2003).
Turner’s book on birds is W. Turner, A Short and Succinct History of the Principal Birds Noticed by Pliny and Aristotle (1544), edited by A. H. Evans (Cambridge University Press, 1903).
For a wonderful account of the joys and inspiration of bird watching, see Jeremy Mynott, Birdscapes: Birds in Our Imagination and Experience (Princeton University Press, 2009).
CHAPTER 1. A CUCKOO IN THE NEST
For Aristotle’s account of the cuckoo laying eggs in other birds’ nests, see A. L. Peck, Aristotle: Historia Animalium, Volume 2 (Heinemann, 1970); and for his account of the young cuckoo ejecting host eggs, see W. S. Hett, Aristotle: Minor Works. On Marvellous Things Heard (Heinemann, 1936). The 1248 quote from Frederick II of Hohenstaufen is from C. A. Wood & F. M. Fyfe, The Art of Falconry, Being the De arte venandi cum avibus of Frederick the Second of Hohenstaufen (Stanford University Press, 1943).
Sir John Clanvowe’s (1341–1391) poem is in The Boke of Cupide, God of Love, or The Cuckoo and the Nightingale, edited by Dana M. Symons (Western Michigan University, 2004), available online: http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/sym1frm.htm
The John Ray quote is from his book The Ornithology of Francis Willughby (John Martyn, London, 1678). I am indebted to Tim Birkhead for this reference; see Tim’s wonderful book The Wisdom of Birds (Bloomsbury, 2008), for the influence of Ray on ornithology.
Hérissant’s paper on cuckoo guts is in Histoire de L’Académie Royale (1752), 417–423. Gilbert White discusses cuckoos in several letters in The Natural History of Selborne (1789), edited by R. Mabey (Penguin, 1977). Edward Jenner’s classic paper is in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (1788), 78, 219–237. The Bechstein quote on benevolent hosts is in J. M. Bechstein, Gemeinnützige Naturgeschichte Deutschlands, Bd 2 (Crusius, Leipzig, 1791). For other references to early accounts of cuckoos, see K. Schulze-Hagen et al., Journal of Ornithology (2009), 150, 1–16; and N. B. Davies, Cuckoos, Cowbirds and Other Cheats (T. & A. D. Poyser, 2000). This last book reviews all the brood-parasitic birds.
Charles Willson Peale’s comments on the admirable family life of American cuckoo species with parental care are from Richard Conniff, The Species Seekers: Heroes, Fools and the Mad Pursuit of Life on Earth (Norton, New York, 2011).
The family tree of cuckoos analysed by molecular genetics, by Michael Sorenson and Robert Payne, is in R. B. Payne, The Cuckoos (Oxford University Press, 2005). The classic paper on evolutionary arms races, by Richard Dawkins and John Krebs, is in Proceedings of the Royal Society B (1979), 205, 489–511.
CHAPTER 2. HOW THE CUCKOO LAYS HER EGG
Edgar Chance published two books on cuckoos: The Cuckoo’s Secret (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1922); The Truth about the Cuckoo (Country Life, 1940).
Baldamus and Rey’s studies in Germany are: E. Baldamus, Das Leben der Europäischen Kuckucke (Parey, 1892); E. Rey, Altes und Neues aus dem Haushalte des Kuckucks (Freese, 1892). Alfred Newton’s article on cuckoo races is in A Dictionary of Birds (A. & C. Black, 1893). Karsten Gärtner’s studies are in Ornithologische Mitteilungen (1981), 33, 115–131, and Die Vogelwelt (1982), 103, 201–224.
For genetic differences between the races of common cuckoos, see F. Fossøy et al. Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2011), 278, 1639–1645.
Mike Bayliss celebrates the egg-laying record by his cuckoo in BTO News (1988), 159, 7.
CHAPTER 3. WICKEN FEN
The history of Wicken Fen and more about the reserve and its wildlife is in the book edited by Laurie Friday, Wicken Fen: the Making of a Wetland Nature Reserve (Harley Books, 1997). For the history of the fens, see Oliver Rackham’s book The History of the Countryside (Dent, 1986), and Ian D. Rotherham’s The Lost Fens: England’s Greatest Ecological Disaster (The History Press, 2013). The Guthlac poem translation is from S. A. J. Bradley, Anglo-Saxon Poetry (Everyman, 2004).
Eric Ennion’s accounts of bird watching and drawing in the fens are in his books: Adventurers Fen (Methuen, 1942); Birds and Seasons (Arlequin Press, 1994): and One Man’s Birds (The Wildlife Art Gallery, Lavenham, 2004). For a lyrical account of the old fens and Ennion’s fen as it is today, see the wonderful book by Tim Dee, Four Fields (Jonathan Cape, 2013).
CHAPTER 4. HARBERING OF SPRING
For more on reed warblers, see Bernd Leisler and Karl Schulze-Hagen, The Reed Warblers: Diversity in a Uniform Bird Family (KNNV Publishing, 2011). For details of reed warbler breeding behaviour on Wicken Fen, see N. B. Davies et al., Animal Behaviour (2003), 65, 285–295. For discussion of fidelity and extra-pair matings in birds, see Tim Birkhead’s book Promiscuity: an Evolutionary History of Sperm Competition and Sexual Conflict (Faber & Faber, 2000).
For radio-tracking studies of cuckoos, see I. Wyllie, The Cuckoo (Batsford, 1981); H. Nakamura & Y. Miyazawa, Japanese Journal of Ornithology (1997), 46, 23–54; M. Honza et al., Animal Behaviour (2002), 64, 861–868. For greater parasitism rates of host nests near cuckoo vantage posts, see F. Alvarez, Ibis (1993), 135, 331; I. J. Øien et al., Journal of Animal Ecology (1996), 65, 147–153; and J. A. Welbergen & N. B. Davies, Current Biology (2009), 19, 235–240. For studies of cuckoo paternity and mating systems, see D. A. Jones et al., Ibis (1997), 139, 560–562, and K. Marchetti et al., Science (1998), 282, 471–472. For evidence, from DNA profiles, that individual female cuckoos lay a constant egg type, see A. Moksnes et al., Journal of Avian Biology (2008), 39, 238–241.
CHAPTER 5. PLAYING CUCKOO
Experimental studies of how cuckoo hosts respond to foreign eggs were pioneered by E. C. S. Baker, Ibis (1913), 55, 384–398, and Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (1923), 277–294; and by C. F. M. Swynnerton, Ibis (1918), 60, 127–154. My experimental study of reed warblers and cuckoos on Wicken Fen with Mike Brooke is N. B. Davies & M. de L. Brooke, Animal Behaviour (1988), 36, 262–284. See also the recent commentary by M. C. Stoddard & R. M. Kilner, Animal Behaviour (2013), 85, 693–699.
Wallace’s discussion of camouflage is in his book Darwinism: an Exposition of the Theory of Natural Selection with Some of its Applications (Macmillan, 1889).
For a detailed study of how cuckoos lay in reed warbler nests, see A. Moksnes et al., Ibis (2000), 142, 247–258. Anton Antonov et al., Chinese Birds (2012), 3, 245–258, consider why cuckoos and other brood-parasitic birds have strong-shelled eggs.
CHAPTER 6. AN ARMS RACE WITH EGGS
For studies of how various hosts respond to model cuckoo eggs, see N. B. Davies & M. de L. Brooke, Journal of Animal Ecology (1989), 58, 207–224 and 225–236; A. Moksnes et al., Auk (1991), 108, 348–354, and Behaviour (1991), 116, 64–89. John Owen’s study of cuckoos parasitising dunnocks is in Report of the Felsted School Science Society (1933), 33, 25–39. For evidence that the cuckoo race specialising on dunnocks lays a distinct egg type, see M. de L. Brooke & N. B. Davies, Nature (1988), 335, 630–632. And for genetic differences among cuckoo races in Britain, see H. L. Gibbs et al. Nature (2000), 407, 183–186.
For cuckoo egg mimicry, as seen through a bird’s eye, see M. C. Stoddard & M. Stevens, Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2010), 277, 1387–1393, and Evolution (2011), 65, 2004–2013. For evolution of thicker cuckoo eggshells in response to host rejection, see C. N. Spottiswoode, Journal of Evolutionary Biology (2010), 23, 1792–1799.
The arms race between water fleas and their bacteria parasites is in E. Decaestecker et al., Nature (2007), 450, 870–873.
For cuckoo parasitism rates of British hosts, see M. de L. Brooke & N. B. Davies, Journal of Animal Ecology (1987), 56, 873–883. For more on the dunnock as a possible recent host, and the time to evolve egg rejection, see N. B. Davies & M. de L. Brooke, Journal of Animal Ecology (1989), 58, 225–236
CHAPTER 7. SIGNATURES AND FORGERIES
For reminiscences of Charles Swynnerton, see G. A. K. Marshall, Nature (1938), 142, 198–199; M. J. Kimberley, Heritage (1990), 9, 47–61. Swynnerton’s classic paper on egg signatures is Ibis (1918), 60, 127–154. R. M. Kilner, Biological Reviews (2006), 81, 383–406, is a review of egg colours and patterns in birds. B. Igic et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2012), 279, 1068–1076, show that cuckoo-host egg mimicry involves use of the same eggshell pigments.
For evidence that egg patterns evolve as signatures in response to brood parasitism, see B. G. Stokke et al., Evolution (2002), 56, 199–205; J. J. Soler & A. P. Møller, Behavioural Ecology (1996), 7, 89–94. The studies by Claire Spottiswoode and Martin Stevens of egg signatures in prinias in Africa, and their forgeries by cuckoo finches, are discussed in three papers: C. N. Spottiswoode & M. Stevens, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (2010), 107, 8672–8676; Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2011), 278, 3566–3573; American Naturalist (2012), 179, 633–648. For an obituary of Major John Colebrook-Robjent, by Pete Leonard, see the Bulletin of the African Bird Club (2008), 16, 5; and for an evocative account of him and his remarkable collaboration with Claire Spottiswoode, see Tim Dee’s book The Running Sky (Jonathan Cape, 2009). Extracts from the Major’s diary are quoted by kind permission of Claire Spottiswoode and Ian Bruce-Miller.
For more on the introduction of village weaverbirds from Africa to the cuckoo-free islands of Hispaniola in the West Indies and Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, see David Lahti’s paper in Animal Biodiversity and Conservation (2003), 26, 45–55. I am indebted to David for the reference and translation from Médéric Louis Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry, Description topographique, physique, civile, politique et historique de la partie française de l’isle Saint-Domingue (Chez Dupont, Paris, 1797), p. 426. For reference to the presence of a colony of weaverbirds in Tron Caiman, Haiti, in 1783, see W. D. Fitzwater, The weaver finch of Hispaniola, Pest Control (1971), 39, 19–20, 56–59. David Lahti’s papers on the loss of egg signatures in village weaverbirds, when they were released from cuckoo parasitism, are: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (2005), 102, 18057–18062; Evolution (2006), 60, 157–168. His paper on the influence of solar radiation on egg colour is: D. Lahti, The Auk (2008), 125, 796–802.
For evidence that hosts learn what their own eggs look like, see A. Lotem et al., Animal Behaviour (1995), 49, 1185–1209; S. I. Rothstein, Animal Behaviour (1975), 23, 268–278. For how reed warblers vary their egg rejection thresholds according to perceived risks of parasitism, see N. B. Davies et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B (1996) 263, 925–931.
CHAPTER 8. A CHEAT IN VARIOUS GUISES
The classic paper on mimicry by Henry Walter Bates is Transactions of the Linnean Society of London (1862), 23, 495–566. For a biography of Wallace, see Peter Raby, Alfred Russel Wallace: a Life (Random House, 2002). Wallace’s ideas on cuckoo hawk mimicry are in Darwinism: an Exposition of the Theory of Natural Selection with Some of its Applications.(Macmillan, 1889). Wallace suggested that cuckoos gained an advantage by mimicking hawks because it protected them from hawk attacks. For evidence that cuckoos suffer less from hawk predation than expected, see A. P. Møller et al., Journal of Avian Biology (2012), 43, 390–396.
The description of the sparrowhawk’s ‘lunacy’ is in W. K. Richmond, British Birds of Prey (Lutterworth, 1959), and quoted from Mark Cocker & Richard Mabey, Birds Britannica (Chatto & Windus, 2005). The Ted Hughes poem is ‘Hawk roosting’: see Ted Hughes, Collected Poems, edited by Paul Keegan (Faber & Faber, 2003).
For more on cuckoo hawk resemblance, see T.-L. Gluckman & N. I. Mundy, Animal Behaviour (2013), 86, 1165–1181. For evidence that hawk-like plumage, with underpart barring, is more prevalent in parasitic cuckoos, see O. Krüger et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2007), 274, 1553–1560. For experiments showing that hawk mimicry by cuckoos aids approach of reed warbler nests, see J. A. Welbergen & N. B. Davies, Behavioural Ecology (2011) 22, 574–579. For evidence that host mobbing of cuckoos deters parasitism, see J. A. Welbergen & N. B. Davies, Current Biology (2009), 19, 235–240; and the review by W. E. Feeney et al., Animal Behaviour (2012), 84, 3–12.
Experiments showing social transmission of mobbing responses by reed warblers are in N. B. Davies & J. A. Welbergen, Science (2009), 324, 1318–1320; D. Campobello & S. G. Sealy, Behavioural Ecology (2011), 22, 422–428; R. Thorogood & N. B. Davies, Science (2012), 337, 578–580.
CHAPTER 9. A STRANGE AND ODIOUS INSTINCT
Aristotle’s mention of cuckoo chick ejection behaviour is in W. S. Hett, Aristotle: Minor Works. On Marvellous Things Heard (Heinemann, 1936). Jenner’s wonderful description is in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (1788), 78, 219–237. For other early accounts, see J. Blackwall, Memoires of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, second series (1824), 78, 441–472; G. Montagu, Ornithological Dictionary of British Birds, second edition (London, 1831); E. Baldamus, Das Leben der Europäischen Kuckucke (Parey, 1892).
Eviction behaviour of cuckoo chicks in reed and great reed warbler nests in the Czech Republic is described in M. Honza et al., Journal of Avian Biology (2007), 38, 385–389; and in reed warbler nests in the English fens in I. Wyllie, The Cuckoo (Batsford, 1981).
Internal incubation of cuckoo eggs was first suggested by G. Montagu, Ornithological Dictionary (London, 1802), and first clearly demonstrated by T. R. Birkhead et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2011) 278, 1019–1024.
For sibling rivalry in birds and other animals, see D. W. Mock & G. A. Parker, The Evolution of Sibling Rivalry (Oxford, 1997). Honeyguide stabbing of host chicks is in C. N. Spottiswoode & J. Koorevaar, Biology Letters (2012), 8, 241–244. For stabbing with bill hooks during sibling rivalry in two parental species of birds, a bee-eater and a kookaburra, see D. M. Bryant & P. Tatner, Animal Behaviour (1990), 39, 657–671, and S. Legge, Journal of Avian Biology (2002), 33, 159–166.
The lack of chick rejection by reed warblers is shown by experiments in N. B. Davies & M. de L. Brooke, Animal Behaviour (1988), 36, 262–284. The suggestion that cuckoo chicks have a ‘drug-like’ manipulative effect on hosts is in R. Dawkins & J. R. Krebs, Proceedings of the Royal Society B (1979), 205, 489–511. Arnon Lotem’s paper on why, in theory, hosts might be doomed to accept common cuckoo chicks is in Nature (1993), 362, 743–745.
For the Australian aboriginal legend explaining why cuckoos do not raise their own young, see http://newsok.com/the-cuckoos-rebellion/article/2626984. For aboriginal knowledge that fairy-wrens do not reject bronze-cuckoo eggs, see S. C. Tidemann & T. Whiteside, Aboriginal stories: the riches and colour of Australian birds, in Ethno-Ornithology: Birds and Indigenous People, Culture and Society (London, Earthscan, 2011), pp. 153–179. For rejection of bronze-cuckoo chicks by hosts in Australia, see N. E. Langmore et al., Nature (2003), 422, 157–160, and Behavioural Ecology (2009), 20, 978–984; N. J. Sato et al., Biology Letters (2010), 6, 67–69; and K. Tokue & K. Ueda, Ibis (2010), 152, 835–839. For mimicry of host chicks by bronze-cuckoo chicks, see N. E. Langmore, Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2011), 278, 2455–2463.
For estimates of the age of cuckoo host-races in Britain, see H. L. Gibbs et al., Nature (2000), 407, 183–186. For dark, cryptic cuckoo eggs in some bronze-cuckoos, see N. E. Langmore et al. Animal Behaviour (2009), 78, 461–468.
CHAPTER 10. BEGGING TRICKS
For desertion of cuckoos in response to a prolonged period of care, see T. Grim et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2003), 270, Supplement, S73–S75; and T. Grim, Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2007), 274, 373–381.
The stimulating effect of the cuckoo chick’s gape for rufous bush chat hosts is shown in F. Alvarez, Ardea (2004), 92, 63–68. The effect of the cuckoo chick’s rapid begging calls on host provisioning is shown in N. B. Davies et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B (1998), 265, 673–678; and R. M. Kilner et al., Nature (1999), 397, 667–672. J. H. Zorn had already suggested this idea back in 1743 in his book Petinotheologie (Enderes, Schwabach). The rapid begging calls of honeyguide chicks were noted by C. H. Fry, Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club (1974), 94, 58–59. The false gapes on the underwings of Horsfield’s hawk-cuckoos are in K. D. Tanaka & K. Ueda, Science (2005), 308, 653; and K. D. Tanaka et al., Journal of Avian Biology (2005), 36, 461–464.
The effectiveness of eye images at manipulating human behaviour is shown in M. Bateson et al., Biology Letters (2006), 2, 412–414, and PLoS One (2012), 7, e51738.
For how cuckoo chicks respond to host alarm calls, see N. B. Davies et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2006), 273, 693–699. For begging stimuli that great spotted cuckoo chicks use to outcompete host chicks, see M. Soler et al., Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology (1995), 37, 7–13; T. Redondo, Etologia (1993), 3, 235–297. For why magpie host parents might naturally prefer large, hungry chicks, see M. Husby, Journal of Animal Ecology (1986), 55, 75–83.
CHAPTER 11. CHOOSING HOSTS
Gilbert White’s (1789) The Natural History of Selborne is edited by R. Mabey (Penguin, 1977). Edward Jenner’s paper is in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (1788), 78, 219–237. The unsuitability of blackbirds and song thrushes as cuckoo hosts is shown experimentally by T. Grim et al., Journal of Animal Ecology (2011), 80, 508–518. The idea that some species are old hosts, which won the arms race with cuckoos, is discussed in N. B. Davies & M. de L. Brooke, Journal of Animal Ecology (1989), 58, 207–224 and 225–236; A. Moksnes et al., Behaviour (1991), 116, 64–89; S. I. Rothstein, Animal Behaviour (2001), 61, 95–107; R. M. Kilner & N. E. Langmore, Biological Reviews (2011), 86, 836–852.
Habitat imprinting by cuckoos is shown in Y. Teuschl et al., Animal Behaviour (1998), 56, 1425–1433. Host imprinting in indigobirds is shown in R. B. Payne et al., Animal Behaviour (2000), 59, 69–81.
For natal dispersal of nestling cuckoos, see D. C. Seel, Ibis (1977), 119, 309-322. For host fidelity by female cuckoos, see M. Honza et al., Animal Behaviour (2002), 64, 861–868; S. Skjelseth et al., Journal of Avian Biology (2004), 35, 21–24; K. Marchetti et al., Science (1998), 282, 471–472. R. C. Punnett’s article suggesting that a female’s egg colour in cuckoos might be determined by her mother’s genes is in Nature (1933), 132, 892. For genetic differences between the cuckoo races, see F. Fossøy et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2011), 278, 1639–1645; O. Krüger & M. Kolss, Journal of Evolutionary Biology (2013), 26, 2447–2457. For call differences among male cuckoos in areas with different host species, see T. I. Fuisz & S. R. de Kort, Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2007), 274, 2093–2097.
H. N. Southern’s article is in Evolution as a Process, edited by J. S. Huxley, A. C. Hardy & E. B. Ford (Allen & Unwin, 1954), pp. 219–232. For frequency of mismatching eggs in host clutches in museum collections, see A. Moksnes & E. Røskaft, Journal of Zoology, London (1995), 236, 625–648. For the start of a new race of cuckoo in Japan, see H. Nakamura, Japanese Journal of Ornithology (1990), 46, 23–54; H. Nakamura et al., in Parasitic Birds and their Hosts, edited by S. I. Rothstein & S. K. Robinson (Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 94–112.
CHAPTER 12. AN ENTANGLED BANK
For brood parasitism by moorhens, see D. W. Gibbons, Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology (1986), 19, 221–232; S. B. McRae, Journal of Avian Biology (1996), 27, 311–320, and Behavioural Ecology (1998), 9, 93–100. For the bitterling–mussel relationship, see M. Reichard et al., Evolution (2010), 64, 3047–3056.
For the synchronous emergence of mayflies as defence to swamp predators, see B. W. Sweeney & R. L. Vannote, Evolution (1982), 36, 810–821. For how female water striders have evolved weapons to defend themselves against males, see G. Arnqvist & L. Rowe, Evolution (2002), 56, 936–947. For male mimicry by female damselflies as a defence against male harassment, see T. N. Sherratt, Ecology Letters (2001), 4, 22–29.
CHAPTER 13. CUCKOOS IN DECLINE
For more on Nicholas Ridley and William Turner, see A. V. Grimstone, Pembroke College Cambridge: a Celebration (Pembroke College, 1997). Turner’s book on birds is W. Turner, A Short and Succinct History of the Principal Birds Noticed by Pliny and Aristotle (1544), edited by A. H. Evans (Cambridge University Press, 1903). For a brilliant history of ornithology from ancient times, including Turner and his contemporaries, see The Wisdom of Birds by Tim Birkhead (Bloomsbury, 2008).
The conservation needs of the world’s birds are assessed by S. H. M. Butchart et al., in Handbook of the Birds of the World, edited by J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott & D. A. Christie, volume 15 (Lynx Edicion, Barcelona, 2010); and costed in D. P. McCarthy et al., Science (2012), 338, 946–949.
For a moving account of our spiritual loss from the decline of cuckoos and other summer migrants, see M. McCarthy, Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo (John Murray, 2009). The decline of cuckoos in the UK is discussed in D. J. T. Douglas et al., Oikos (2010), 119, 1834–1840, and in J. A.Vickery et al., Ibis (2014), 156, 1-22. For the rapid recent decline of moths in the UK, see K. F. Conrad et al., Biological Conservation (2006), 132, 279–291. Climate change effects on cuckoo migration and host use across Europe are discussed in N. Saino et al., Biology Letters (2009), 5, 539–541; A. P. Møller et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2011), 278, 733–738. Leonard Jenyns’s records of the cuckoo’s first arrival in a parish near Wicken Fen are in A Naturalist’s Calendar Kept at Swaffham Bulbeck, Cambridgeshire, by Leonard Blomefield (formerly Jenyns), edited by F. Darwin (Cambridge University Press, 1903). For cuckoo first spring arrival dates over the past 50 years at other sites across the UK, see T. H. Sparks et al., Journal of Ornithology (2007), 148, 503–511. For observations of cuckoo movements in Africa, see Robert Payne, The Cuckoos (Oxford University Press, 2005).
For satellite tracking of cuckoo migration, see the website of the British Trust for Ornithology (www.bto.org).
CHAPTER 14. A CHANGING WORLD
How reed warblers have tracked the cuckoo decline with declining defences over three decades on Wicken Fen is in R. Thorogood & N. B. Davies, Evolution (2013), 67, 3545–3555. How reed warbler defences vary between populations in relation to parasitism risk is in A. K. Lindholm, Journal of Animal Ecology (1999), 68, 293–309; B. Stokke et al., Behavioural Ecology (2008), 19, 612–620; J. A. Welbergen & N. B. Davies, Behavioural Ecology (2012), 23, 783–789.
The rapid evolution of blackcap migration is in P. Berthold et al., Nature (1992), 360, 668–670; and S. Bearhop et al., Science (2005), 310, 502–504. The successful tracking of earlier springs by earlier egg laying of great tits in Wytham Woods is in A. Charmantier et al., Science (2008), 320, 800–803. The failure of a long-distance migrant, the pied flycatcher, to track earlier springs is in C. Both & M. E. Visser, Nature (2001), 411, 296–298. For more on evolution in response to a changing world, see U. Candolin & B. B. M. Wong, Behavioural Responses to a Changing World (Cambridge, 2012).
For the feasts of Henry III, see Oliver Rackham, The History of the Countryside (Dent, 1986). The creation of the wonderful RSPB reserve at Lakenheath is described by Norman Sills and Graham Hirons in British Wildlife (2011), 22, 381–390. For an optimistic view of how conservation can make a difference, see Andrew Balmford, Wild Hope: on the Front Lines of Conservation Success (University of Chicago Press, 2012).