Observations on the Cuckoo. A445 
with the assistance of its ramp and wings, it 
contrives to get a young bird upon its back, 
and making a lodgment for the burden by 
elevating its pinions, clambers backward _ 
with it up the side. of the nest till it reaches 
the top, where resting for a moment, it 
throws off its load with a jerk, and quite dis- 
engages it from the nest. It remains in this 
situation a short time, feeling about with the 
extremities of its wings, as if to be convinced 
whether the business is properly executed, 
and then drops into the nest again. It fre- 
quently examines, as it were, an egg or 
nestling with the ends of its wings before it 
begins its operations; and the nice sensibility 
which these. parts appear to possess, seems 
sufficiently to compensate for the want of 
sight, of which sense it is at first destitute. 
It is wonderful to see the extraordinary ex- 
ertions of the young cuckoo, when it is two 
or three days old, if a bird be put into the 
nest that is too weighty for it to lift out. In 
this state it seems ever restless and uneasy, 
but this disposition for turning out its com- 
panions continues to decline, from the time 
it is two or three, till it is about twelve days 
old, when it usually ceases: indeed, the dis- 
position for throwing out the egg appears to 
cease a few days sooner, for the young cuc- 
