Yellow-hilled Cuckoo 207 



destructive gypsy moth is another favourite 

 dainty. 



Perhaps you have heard that the cuckoo, 

 like the naughty cowbird, builds no nest and 

 lays its eggs in other birds' cradles? This is 

 true only of the European cuckoo. Its Ameri- 

 can cousin makes a poor apology for a nest, it 

 is true, merely a loose bundle or platform of 

 sticks, as fiimsily put together as a dove's 

 nest. The greenish-blue eggs or the naked 

 babies must certainly fall through, one would 

 think. Still it is all the cuckoos' own, and they 

 are proud of it. But so sensitive and fearful 

 are they when a human visitor inspects their 

 nursery that they will usually desert it, never 

 to return, if you touch it, so beware of peep- 

 ing! 



When the skinny cuckoo babies are a few 

 days old, blue pin-feathers begin to appear, and 

 presently their bodies are stuck full of fine, 

 sharply pointed quills like a well-stocked pin 

 cushion. Porcupine babies you might think 

 them now. But presto! every pin -feather 

 suddenly fluffs out the day before the youngsters 

 leave the nest, and they are clothed in a suit of 

 soft feathers like their parents. In a few 

 months young cuckoos, hatched as far north as 

 New England and Canada or even Labrador, 

 are strong enough to fly to Central or South 

 America to spend the winter. 



