YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO, OR RAIN-CROW. 553 



eral of the nests where it is found, in some way or other, 

 after being laid, for in no other manner could it be depos- 

 ited in the closed nest of the Common Wren, or that of 

 the Chiff-Chaflf* and other small kinds. The piratic habit 

 governs the Cuckoo from its very birth, and the deceived 

 foster-parent, by her kindness, has brought out, in the 

 ruthless foundling, the dragon of her own offspring, every 

 one of them being instinctively thrown out of the nest to 

 die by this intruder on nature's benevolence. So exclu- 

 sive, indeed, is this assumption of usurped existence, that 

 when two Cuckoos have been hatched (as sometimes hap- 

 pens) in the same nest, a continual contest ensued until 

 the stronger ejected the weaker, and exposed it to perish ! 

 We shudder at the instinctive expression of so much de- 

 liberate treachery in nature, of a still deeper cast than 

 that which presides over the birth of our Cotc-Bunfing, 

 for here the supposititious charge comes into life before 

 the hatching of the other eggs of the nurse, and though 

 the genuine brood mostly perish, as soon as they appear, 

 the foundling exhibits no hostility towards them. But 

 where we cannot follow nor explain the decrees of crea- 

 tion, we must bow in reverence to those necessary and in- 

 scrutable laws which govern the universe in wisdom. 



From reflections so appalling, on the birth of the 

 foreign Cuckoo, we may turn with satisfaction to the con- 

 jugal history of our present subject, which, early in May, 

 or soon after its arrival, may be, at times, observed obsti- 

 nately engaged in the quarrels of selective attachment. 

 The dispute being settled, the nest is commenced and 

 usually fixed either in the horizontal branches of an ap- 

 ple tree, or in a thicket, a thorn bush, crab, cedar, or 

 other small tree in some retired part of the woods. The 



* Sylvia hypolais. 



47 



