OF VICTORIA. 161 



them and their eggs, and in addition seldom answer well 

 why the anomalous eggs are found in certain nests. They 

 have the " wandering voices " but not the notes from 

 which the simile is drawn. When the spring blossoms 

 begin to appear in the fields the minstrelsy of the cuckoos 

 is heard along the borders of towns as well as forests. 

 After this the piercing voice is more rural, and till late in 

 January, on rare occasions, the call for what I consider a 

 marriage partner is still given, and repeated until Dame 

 Fortune beams upon him. Es^Decially in October are the 

 weird notes of the Bronze species heard above those of 

 smaller denizens of the same woods. As for the Pallid 

 Cuckoo, it sits upon the tallest dead bough of the highest 

 tree and wails its melancholy note until those of each bar 

 in the ascent become thoroughly accelerendo. 



Everyone living beyond a city should hear the bird in 

 its first burst of "song" in September, but it is apparently 

 dead to the world of men by February. The little birds 

 begin to lead a lively life on arrival of these nomads, for, 

 being parasitic, objections are raised. In the case of the 

 Pallid species, nests of birds building open structures are 

 chosen, while the other four species are distributors of 

 their honours to those of side entrances as well as wide- 

 open cups. The Fan- tailed species and two Bronze species 

 choose 75 per cent, of dome-shaped nests, while the 

 Square-tailed species is content with 50 per cent, and the 

 remaining half of open nests. Because tits are so 

 thoroughly insectivorous and obliging, they act in the 

 majority of cases as foster-parents. The mature cuckoo is 

 supposed to be the only bird that eats hairy caterpillars, 

 and probably the only insectivorous one that is supposed to 

 lay twenty eggs in a season ; so that there should be plenty 

 of cuckoos to combat the larvae. If I mistake not, we will 



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