PERCHING BIRDS. 151 
the ground, and (as usual where the opening is too 
large) was contracted by a plastering of clay. 
Few of our native birds possess such pleasing associa- 
tions as the Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus). The very 
name carries us back to the times of merry childhood, 
-and recalls the feeling of joy which the monotonous 
though musical note awakened in our breasts. We 
knew that winter was gone, and that violets and prim- 
roses were to be found in the woods. How blithely did 
we set off to gather them, and how pleased were we 
to imitate the well-known call of the “harbinger of 
spring !” 
Yet it is only its association with the joyous spring- 
time that makes us welcome the cuckoo, for the bird 
itself possesses none of those attractive qualities which 
naturally call forth our admiration. It elicits in us no 
sympathy, for it exhibits no fidelity to its mate, no 
affection or tender solicitude for its offspring, but, 
scattered here and there, it leaves its young ones to the 
protection and care of strangers. Yet we-cannot blame 
it for this, as it does but obey its natural instincts. It 
has often struck me as one of the many marvellous ways 
which our Divine Creator has devised for the preserva- 
tion of species, that the foster parents never seem to 
discover the fraud perpetrated upon them, but hatch the 
strange egg and tend their foundling with as much care 
as their own offspring. 
Of few of our British birds have such various as- 
sertions and opinions been hazarded as of the cuckoo, 
some no doubt arising from want of observation, others 
from observations carelessly made. Some have stated 
that the cuckoo has been known to feed her own young 
one ; this has been denied by others, who have asserted 
