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After writing an award-winning account of the world’s brood parasites (Cuckoos, Cowbirds and Other Cheats), naturalist and behavioral ecologist Nick Davies turns his storytelling talents to the ‘‘arms race’’ between the Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) and the Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus scirpaceus), which he and his colleagues have studied at Wicken Fen in southern England for 30 years. In his latest book, Cuckoo: Cheating by Nature, Davies takes the reader ‘‘on a journey of discovery,’’ recounting the steps taken to unravel the evolution of the warbler’s defenses against the cuckoo’s trickery. The book is divided into 14 chapters, each focused on an interaction between the cuckoo and the host. There are no references in the text, but each chapter is followed by sources that support the ideas and concepts discussed in the text or provide additional information. Although the focus is on the birds at Wicken Fen, Davies draws upon information from studies conducted in other parts of the cuckoo’s vast range and on other parasitic species. Ever the naturalist, Davies also makes readers feel they are with him in the field by injecting observations from the world around him, such as the harriers coursing above the reed tops and cranes wheeling high overhead. Underpinning much of Davies’s work are observations of the early naturalists. The first chapter begins with Davies observing a warbler’s nest, in awe of a young cuckoo being fed by unsuspecting hosts. This and other sights, Davies acknowledges, have intrigued naturalists since Aristotle, and a succession of observations by literary figures and naturalists appeared over the ensuing centuries, until Charles Darwin dispelled the notion that the broodparasitic mode of reproduction is anomalous; rather, it evolved gradually from parental ancestry. Darwin’s intuition is never far from where Davies is working. Less than a century ago, Edgar Chance uncovered ‘‘truths’’ as basic as how the cuckoo lays its egg and selects nests with eggs that closely match its own. Although these stories have been retold many times, they set up Davies’s mission to determine why cuckoos behave in these and other ways. Armed with interesting questions, Davies was about to begin, but Wicken Fen had changed. Hundreds of years of deforestation and altered wetlands had fragmented the landscape to which cuckoos and warblers return in spring. Davies was initially reticent about initiating a study at a single site, but he was aware that Gilbert White’s far-reaching contributions were made in and around his village of Selborne, over a period of 60 years. Davies’s decision turned out to be a wise one. Pieces of the puzzle fell into place, supported by long-term data garnered from marked cuckoos and hosts. Exchanges of eggs between nests, conducted by naturalists since the late 1700s, suggested that many hosts remove ‘‘foreign’’ eggs. Stephen Rothstein’s detective work, which began in the 1960s, focused on another cheater, the Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater), and ushered in an era of controlled experimentation. Researchers recognized that they can play the role of the brood parasite. This was all the inspiration needed for a new band of researchers—Nick

the auk/the auk

Cuckoo: Cheating by Nature<b>Cuckoo: Cheating by Nature</b>by Nick Davies. 2015. Bloomsbury, New York. xx + 289 pages, 17 line drawings, 14 text figures, 21 color photographs. $27 (hardcover). ISBN 978-1-62040-952-7.

Cuckoo: Cheating by NatureCuckoo: Cheating by Natureby Nick Davies. 2015. Bloomsbury, New York. xx + 289 pages, 17 line drawings, 14 text figures, 21 color photographs. $27 (hardcover). ISBN 978-1-62040-952-7.