1 6 About the Feathered Folk. 



but little about it. Nowhere does 

 it show more curiously than in the 

 habits of the Cuckoo. 



This extremely odd way of pro- 

 viding for their young must have 

 some wise reason in it, although it 

 is hidden, as yet, from our eyes. 

 And the murdering part of the 

 affair, outrageous as it appears, may 

 not be altogether wrong ; for the 

 callow Cuckoo has a strange de- 

 pression on its back, apparently 

 designed for the express purpose of 

 enabling it to shovel its foster- 

 brothers and sisters overboard. 

 The creature is restless and uneasy 

 until it has managed to oust them 

 every one, and get the whole place 

 to itself. Then it rests quiet, and 

 eats and dozes and grows; and 

 the hollow on its back fills up, and 

 it is shaped much as are other 

 young birds who have had no 

 murdering to do. 



Later on in its life comes another 



