2011/09/14 by Spencer G. Sealy, Mélanie F. Guigueno · 1 citation
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Environmental Science · #Avian ecology and behavior #Botany, Ecology, and Taxonomy Studies #Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
paper · doi:10.3366/anh.2011.0030
openalex publication_date 2011/09/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/26
For centuries, naturalists were aware that soon after hatching the common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) chick became the sole occupant of the fosterer's nest. Most naturalists thought the adult cuckoo returned to the nest and removed or ate the fosterer's eggs and young, or the cuckoo chick crowded its nest mates out of the nest. Edward Jenner published the first description of cuckoo chicks evicting eggs and young over the side of the nest. Jenner's observations, made in England in 1786 and 1787, were published by the Royal Society of London in 1788. Four years before Jenner's observations, in 1782, Antoine Joseph Lottinger recorded eviction behaviour in France and published his observations in Histoire du coucou d'Europe, in 1795. The importance of Lottinger's and Jenner's observations is considered together.