i66 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES 



sedge-warblers, to mourn for them ; for have they not fed 

 them from toad-Hke childhood until they were as large as 

 their parents ? Indeed, the little birds love them, and I 

 always think that chasing of the old cuckoos in early spring 

 may be the foster-parents looking eagerly for their child 

 reared the summer before on the grassy marsh, or down by 

 the clear watered dike where the young pike now darts to 

 and fro. Strange whorish character that he is, the cuckoo's 

 habits still remain a m^'stery to all. 



And after all this observation of the cuckoo's habits, the 

 only lasting impression we have is that of a family of gay 

 careless chortling heterae, coming out of the deep and fl^'ing 

 from the blue misty coverts over the marshes in the prime 

 of summer-time, feeding on all the delicacies of the season, 

 undertaking no work or cares, imposing their duties upon 

 others, deserting their own offspring and leaving them as 

 foundlings in the nests of respectable little birds, whose 

 hearts they may break ere they, too, are lost again in the 

 haze overhanging the grey sea, and then throughout the 

 dark and drear}^ winter watches all that is left is the echo 

 of their joyous calls in the heyday of spring-time, when 

 all the world is 3'oung, and every lad hugs his lass. 



