Cuckoos and Hairy Caterpillars 151 



place some days before, as the skin-wound was nearly healed. The 

 bird was very emaciated, and in evident pain, so J killed it. In 

 the stomach I found a full-grown larva of the Fox moth — the only 

 instance in which I have met with this caterpillar inside a bird. 



The cause is ob\ious enough. Starvation was staring the poor 

 bird in the face : its crippled condition prevented its searching for its 

 ordinary food ; the caterpillars were plentiful, and close at hand ; 

 it had no choice in the matter ; it was the case of caterpillar 

 or nothing. 



I have the dissection notes of a considerable number of Land- 

 rails killed at different times, but none of these contained hairy 

 larvcC. 



It is altogether different with the Cuckoo. From the cradle 

 to the grave almost every circumstance in the life history of the 

 bird is out of the common. The young are, in a sense, orphans 

 before they are born, and their education depends entireh' on what 

 they pick up from their foster-parents. These dupes, no doubt, 

 do their best to impart to the juvenile Cuckoo the knowledge that 

 would be ser\-iceable to their own children. But the needs of the 

 grown-up Cuckoo are so different from those of the Pipits, Wagtails, 

 Hedge-Sparrows, Reed-Warblers, etc., that one cannot suppose that 

 the parental schooling is very successful, and the Cuckoo really 

 goes out into the world verv poorly equipped with the experience 

 which a legitimate offspring would possess. He is conscious of an 

 insatiable hunger, and a determination to satisf\- his cravings in 

 the fullest manner with the smallest expenditure of labour. He is, 

 in fact, both a glutton and a sluggard. The blame for these failings 

 rests witli his own parents, who neglected him from the outset, and 

 then with the foster-parents, who spoilt the monstrous child from the 

 hour he broke the shell. 



The efforts of foster-parents, however well-intentioned, are 

 seldom entirely successful. I remember a number of wild Ducks 

 that were hatched under hens, the coops being placed near a small 

 pond in the middle of a large heather-common. The Ducklings, 

 of course, took to the water, the hens protesting. Not far away were 

 a number of bee-hives placed in the heather, and the bees frequented 

 the pond in large numbers for drinking purposes. To the Ducklings, 

 the bees seemed as though they should be good to eat, and they 

 snapped at them whenever they got opportunity. The bees 

 resented this treatment, and stung the Ducks that were wishful to 

 swallow tliem, in the throat. The honours rested entirely with the 

 bees. I forget the total number of Ducklings we started with, but 

 I remember that from 75 to 80 per cent, met their end in this wav. 



The Ducklings had not had sufficient experience of life to 

 discriminate between the things they might eat with impunity and 

 the things they might not eat. These tragic happenings would have 

 been entirelv prevented, had their real mother been with them ; 

 a word from her, and the\' would have understood that bees were 



