General Notes on the Cuckoo. 23 



tends much further back than is usual among birds, 

 and this peculiarity allows the bill to be opened 

 sufficiently wide to hold the egg. Within a few 

 days the young Cuckoo shows that he has inherited 

 the knowledge that his little foster-parents will have 

 as much as they can do to satisfy him, and that the 

 presence of nest fellows means overcrowding and 

 short commons for all. So he at once secures his 

 own comfort and well-being by getting his back under 

 each of his brothers in turn and hoisting them out 

 of the nest. Of course they perish, and the infant 

 murderer and supplanter flourishes, his foster-par- 

 ents thinking great things of themselves for having 

 gotten so fine and large a child. 



The Cuckoo commences to lay about the middle 

 of May, and often saves the labours of its offspring by 

 removing some of the eggs laid by the builders of the 

 nest. There is a good deal of variation in the colour 

 and markings as well as the size of the Cuckoo's 

 eggs, but some modern authorities believe that the 

 score of eggs laid by any one hen show little if any 

 dift'erence between themselves. This, however, is a 

 statement very difficult to prove, and diff'ers from 

 the experience of egg collectors in the case of other 



