176 THE SECOND BOOK OF BIRDS 
lays eggs in other birds’ nests, and leaves her 
young to be brought up by others. Do not for- 
get that the bird who does that is the European 
cuckoo —not ours. Our cuckoos build nests, 
though very poor ones, sometimes hardly more 
than a platform of sticks. 
This bird is useful to us, for he eats some of 
our most troublesome insects, —such as tent 
caterpillars, which few birds like to eat because 
they are so hairy, and other insects with spines 
that are poisonous, and so generally avoided. 
The cuckoo is graceful in flight. He goes 
swiftly, without noise, and seems to glide through 
the thickest foliage with ease. 
I once found a young bird tumbling about on 
the ground. He was trying to fly, but was not 
able to go much more than a foot at a time. 
He was giving strange calls, which were an- 
swered from the woods beside the road by a low 
tapping sound. I thought of course the little 
one was a woodpecker and his mother was doing 
the knocking. It was so dark I could not see 
him well. After some trouble I caught him and 
was going to take a good look at him to see who 
he was before I let him go. As I grasped him 
he gave a shriek, and out from the thick trees 
popped a cuckoo. She alighted on a low branch 
outside and gave such a cry of distress that 1 
