CUCKOO. 105 



but seldom. The birds do not pair. The females are much less 

 numerous than the males. The male keeps stationary in the 

 district he has selected, and often holds fierce battles in the air 

 with his rivals ; whilst the female roams from place to place to find 

 a lover everywhere. 



The Cuckoo indeed is a contrast to all others of the feathered 

 tribe. As an active sensitive animal — a bird amongst birds — he is 

 the very personification of selfishness ; seeking his own pleasures 

 the live-long day, he leaves to others the common work and duties 

 of life : 



Without a home, without a nest, 



No mate to call his own. 

 ^Yith no parental love possess'd, 



A creature all alone. 



Evans — Song of the Birds. 



The Cuckoo builds no nest. It places its egg in that of some 

 insect-feeding birds, and leaves to them the trouble of incubation, 

 and of feeding the young bird. The young Cuckoo, moreover, 

 within a few hours of its birth, wilfully pushes the natural progeny 

 over the edge of the nest to perish, that it may take to itself all 

 the food its little foster parents can supply. For some weeks after 

 the Cuckoo leaves the nest, when it has grown far bigger than 

 themselves, these little birds still feed it, until, led by an irresistible 

 instinct, it flies away to join companions it has never seen before, 

 and to take a journey it knows not where! never again to recognise, 

 so far as is known, its foster parents. Its general character certainly 

 is not amiable : 



He tells of selfish pleasure 



That loves abroad to roam, 

 Where the heart can have no treasure 



Because it knows no home. 



Evans— ^Son^fs of the Birds. 



The Cuckoo does not seem very particular as to the little bird 

 it makes a victim of its attentions ; the eggs have been found in the 

 nests of Hedge-Sparrows, Robins, Warblers, Larks, Wagtails, Red- 

 starts,Whitethroats, Wrens, Yellow-Hammers, Chaffinches, Thrushes, 

 and Blackbirds. Though it usually selects the insect-eating birds, 

 it is very remarkable that the Chaffinch, Greenfinch or Linnet will, 



