The Gucl'on. 89 



blunder as that, for she generally chooses the Hedge Accentor, 

 or the Yellow-hammer, to be the foster-parent of her child 

 that is to be: and here again mystery surrounds the bird from 

 its very birth, for soon after it is hatched tlie young inmates 

 proper disappear from the nest, and the big ugly changeling 

 is left alone to benefit by the foster-parents' care. 



What becomes of the young Accentors, or Yellow-hammers, 

 as the case may be? Some writers have given a most graphic 

 account of the mode in which the two-day-old Cuckoo takes 

 up the helpless birdies on his back, and pitches them out of 

 the nest, to die of cold and hunger on the ground below; 

 averring that JS^ature has considerately provided him with a 

 hollow back, the better to accomplish his nefarious purpose: 

 to which I reply that, in my opinion, the force of imagination 

 could scarcely further go; and after all the matter is simple 

 enough. 



When hatched, the young Cuckoo is fully twice the size of 

 its foster-brothers and sisters, and generally gets a day's start 

 of them, sometimes two; it grows very fast, is very strong, 

 and so voracious that it grabs all the food intended for the 

 whole family, so that the otlier poor little mites are starved, 

 and possibly smothered, too, by their huge foster-brother, and 

 when dead are thrown out of the nest by their parents, as 

 is customary with all birds; or else they are pressed down to 

 the bottom, trampled, in fact, by the Cuckoo, and as the little 

 frames are not much more than skin and bone, they soon 

 dry up and disappear. This, I think, is the true explanation 

 of the fact, that out of a whole nestful of young birds, the 

 changeling Cuckoo is the only one that is reared. 



When wild, these birds feed almost entirely on insects, 

 chiefly caterpillars, hairy caterpillars some writers say, but these 

 were the death of my Cuckoo, as I shall presently relate. 



Everyone is acquainted with the note of this bird, which has 

 given it its name in almost every language : thus the Eom.ans 

 called it Cuculus, the English Cuckoo, the Germans Kuckuk 



