106 CUCKOO. 
having been found, as hereafter mentioned, in the nest of a 
Greentinch, a Linnet, and a Chaffinch. It is, however, on 
the other hand, very remarkable that such birds as these latter 
will very often, though not always, in such case, feed the 
young Cuckoo with insects; their own most natural food being 
grain, and with which latter, when prepared in their own 
craw, they feed their own young. Even a Canary, in whose 
cage a young Cuckoo was lodged, fed it with caterpillars 
placed there for the purpose, instead of with the seed on 
which she herself was always accustomed to feed. At times, 
however, birds of the Finch tribe, at whose door these un- 
welcome foundlings have been dropped, supply them with 
young wheat, vetches, tender blades of grass, and seeds of 
different kinds. 
The small bird has been known even to follow its foster- 
child into a cage, and to feed it there, as well as in other 
instances to attend upon it outside the cage. William Reynolds, 
Ksq., of Walton, near Glastonbury, Somersetshire, has written 
me word of an instance of this in the case of a Robin; and 
of another which fed her charge within thirty feet of a con- 
stant thoroughfare. The aperture to the nest was only three 
inches and a half wide, and when the young Cuckoo found 
himself becoming Taber straitened in his circumstances, he 
worked himself out, and fell down, which led to his discovery 
and capture; but when able to fly he was restored to liberty. 
Again, it is a fact worthy of being remarked in connexion 
with the above, though militating strangely against the general 
theory to be deduced from it, that small birds will very 
frequently, perhaps as frequently as they suffer the Cuckoo's 
ege to remain in their nest, turn it out. If then they have 
this antipathy, certainly no unreasonable one, against the 
unwarrantable intrusion, how are they influenced to ‘their more 
than ordinary and even, so to speak, unnatural care of their 
supposititious foster-children ? 
The Cuckoo drinks frequently. They may often be seen 
pursued, or rather followed by small birds, especially by 'Tit- 
larks, which can hardly be wondered at after the facts here 
mentioned, which may also well leave it in doubt whether it 
be in hostility, or a kind of stupid and wondering admiration. 
Swifts join in the pursuit, though the Cuckoo does not lay 
her egg in their nests: their migration is too early for her 
young 
The food of the young Cuckoo consists of caterpillars, small 
