220 The World-Evidence. 



" That their migratory habits, as suggested by 

 Jenner, have anything whatever to do with it, is con- 

 tradicted by the fact of the instance of many non- 

 migratory cuckoos (the common Indian koel, for 

 example), being equally parasitic."'' 



TJie Origin of Species, it is true, was first published 

 in 1859; but in any of the editions after the third, 

 Mr. Jerdon's words might have been noticed, and 

 they certainly are not in the sixth edition, published 

 in 1872. 



But Mr. Darwin cannot be let off so easily for 

 failing to read, or with purposes ignoring if he had 

 read, the remarkable reports of Mr. Blyth, in the 

 Asiatic Soc. yonnial, for the years from 1842 — 1848 

 more especially. Some most exceptional cases are 

 there set down, and facts, which go directly in the 

 teeth of what Jenner had said — in fact, a body of 

 observation and experiment which, of itself, amply 

 suffices to prove that migration has and can have 

 nothing really to do with the parasitism of the cuckoo, 

 whilst Mr. Darwin, with his perverse ingenuity, would 

 fain have made it have every tiling to do w4th it. And 

 the facts— plain facts — are all dead against him. 



V. Some other points find confirmation and illus- 

 tration. Captain Hutton makes the following note 

 about Cnculus intermedins (the Asiatic cuckoo), 

 writing from Mussoorie : 



*' The natives have an idea that this bird builds its 

 own nest and rears its young itself. This is erron- 

 eous ; but it evidently arises from the curious fact 

 that when the young bird is old enough to leave the 

 nest, the foster-birds feed it no longer, and it is then 



* Birds of India, i, p. 321. 



