134 JOTTINGS ABOUT BIRDS. 



must not be overlooked, and that is the peculiar 

 one in the young bird of ejecting its fellow nestlings. 

 From various reasons the young Cuckoo has an 

 advantage over its companions from its birth. In 

 the first place, it is their superior in size and 

 strength ; secondly, it grows quicker and thrives 

 better, probably because it monopolizes the lion's 

 share of the food, so that in about a week after it is 

 hatched it is said to throw out of the nest the 

 legitimate tenants, and to gain the undivided atten- 

 tion of its foster-parents. I am of opinion that the 

 other young birds are in nine cases out of ten killed 

 either by suffocation or starvation before they are 

 thus expelled ; and it is not improbable that the 

 old birds in many if not in all cases eject the 

 dead nestlings themselves, as they often do under 

 perfectly normal circumstances. I am well aware 

 that self-preservation is a strong passion in all 

 living creatures, and that such an instinct of 

 ejection may exist in the young Cuckoo, but we 

 know next to nothing about the circumstances, and 

 the evidence bearing thereon is of such a vague 

 character that no cautious student is justified in 

 accepting it without a certain amount of incredulity. 

 It is astonishing that so little has been observed 

 of this portion of the Cuckoo's economy, and still 



