134 Our Bikd Friends. 



I have mentioned a few instances of birds of 

 one species dropping their eggs into nests belonging 

 to the members of other species, and it naturally 

 follows that foster-parents must sometimes occur as 

 a resnU. A covey of Partridges is occasionally met 

 with containing one or two abnormally large chicks 

 which will, in all probability, turn out to be young- 

 Pheasants. 



The Cuckoo, of course, makes foster-parents of 

 a great number of small birds which it victimises 

 by ])lacino- its c<»-Lr in their nests. A very strange 

 thing about the 3'oung Cuckoo is that during the 

 first few days of its life it has a slight hollow or 

 depression in its back which appears to have been 

 s[)ecially provided by Nature in order to 1r1[) it to 

 eject the vounLj- or ci^sj^s belonging to the bird in 

 the nest of which the intruder finds itself, and it 

 never rests until it remains in undisputed ])os- 

 session of tlie stolen home. The astonishing part 

 of the whole thing is that the parent l)ir(ls of the 

 ejected chicks do not resent the intrusion ot the 

 Inmgry robber and nuu'derer who has throAvn their 

 helpless children out of doors to starve and die in 

 the gutter, as it were. Instead of leaving him to his 

 well-merited fate, they work like galley-slaves to pro- 

 vide him with food, and, should any accident befall 

 the usurper, sliow just as miicb anxidy as it" he 

 had been one of their own Mesh and blood. J once 

 saw an inexperienced gunner shoot a fully-fiedged 

 Cuckoo in mistake for a Hawk, and its foster- 



