Cuckoos and Swallows. 17 



wonderful exercise of "instinct." 

 It has never seen its real parents; 

 it can have had no sort of teaching 

 from them in the way in which it 

 must go. A solitary, untrained 

 being it is from the very manner of 

 its rearing untrained, that is, in the 

 habits and plans of Cuckoos. 



And yet, when the time comes, 

 it obeys the mysterious law that 

 rules its nature, and, untaught, un- 

 guided, flies southward, over the 

 seas and plains that lie between 

 its birth-place and the land whither 

 it must go. 



If the Swallows had minds where- 

 with to marvel, they would wonder 

 at that ! They take infinite pains 

 to teach and train their own darling 

 brood, even as they were themselves 

 trained by their parents before 

 them. And in the autumn they 

 gather the giddy ones, and keep a 

 bright watch upon them, and make 

 their migration in huge flocks. No 

 c 



