THE CUCKOO. 



431 



female is smaller than her mate. In dimensions the Channel-Bill is about equal to the com- 

 mon crow, but owing to the long and broad tail, which causes the bird to measure more than 

 two feet in total length, it appears much larger than is really the case. 



THERE are few birds which are more widely known by good and evil report than the com- 

 mon CUCKOO. 



As the harbinger of spring, it is always welcome to the ears of those who have just passed 

 through the severities of winter ; and as a heartless mother, an abandoner of its offspring, and 

 an occupier of other homes it has been subjected to general reprobation. As is usual in such 

 cases, both opinions ai'e too sweeping ; for the continual cry of "Cuck-oo ! cuck-oo !" however 

 agreeable it may be on the first hearing, soon becomes monotonous and fatiguing to the ear ; 

 and the mother Cuckoo is not so far lost to all feelings of maternity as to take no thought for 



CUCKOO. Cumins canorue. 



her young, but ever remains near the place where it has deposited her egg and seems to keep 

 watch over the foster-parents. 



It is well known that the female Cuckoo does not make any nest, but places her egg in 

 the nest of some small bird, and leaves it to the care of its unwitting foster-parents. Various 

 birds are burdened with this charge, such as the hedge-warbler, the pied wagtail, the meadow- 

 pipit, the red-backed shrike, the blackbird, and various finches. Generally, however, the 

 three first are those preferred. Considering the size of the mother-bird, the egg of the Cuckoo 

 is remarkably small, being about the same size as that of the skylark, although the latter bird 

 has barely one-fourth the dimensions of the former. The little birds, therefore, which are 

 always careless about the color or form of an egg, provided that it be nearly the size of their 

 own productions, and will be perfectly contented with an egg-shaped pebble or a scraped 

 marble, do not detect the imposition, and hatch the interloper together with their own young. 



The general color of the Cuckoo's egg is mottled reddish-gray, but the tint is very variable 

 in different individuals, as I can testify from personal experience. It has also been noted that 

 the color of the egg varies with the species in whose nest it is to be placed, so that the egg 



