ii6 Darwin and Romanes dealt with. 



the flying cuckoos would cause such a complete 

 departure from the instinct towards a new brood that 

 I for one believe that the young cuckoos would after 

 all be left to their fate. For this instinct is one of the 

 most imperative of all instincts ; and I do not believe 

 that in such circumstances the motive would be strong 

 enough to cause it to be so absolutely departed from 

 in this special case. Eckermann, in talking with 

 Goethe, saw this, but scarcely realised the whole 

 result of what he allowed in his own mind. 



There is, besides the best reasons for believing that 

 in cases — very rare cases, when the cuckoo itself 

 broods its young, the young can forage for themselves 

 in three weeks, while, under care of the foster-parents, 

 they need five or six weeks. This is a point that I 

 do not remember having seen any attempt whatever 

 to explain ; yet it is so peculiar that it demands 

 investigation. 



Then, in view of the propagation of species and 

 the securing of the desired end by the most direct 

 possible process, does it not seem a sad defect in 

 nature's contrivance that she has not made the young 

 cuckoos quick and ready to learn how to find their 

 own food. The chicks of the mound-building birds, 

 after having forced their way through some feet of 

 mould and dust, run into the thick forest and can at 

 once provide for themselves. This seems all right 

 under the ordinary rule of natural selection and sur- 

 vival of the fittest ; but if these laws are here illus- 

 trated by the chicks from the mounds, they certainly 

 are not so, in the extraordinary time the young 

 cuckoos remain practically helpless, dependent on 

 others absolutely, when they should be self-support- 

 ing. 



