Cuckoos and Swallows. 1 3 



Bird are mysterious. Cuckoos are 

 shy of taking humans into their 

 confidence. It is only little by little 

 that we have found out anything of 

 their habits, their odd family arrange- 

 ments, their goings and doings and 

 comings. 



It is the male bird who repeats 

 that constant song. His mate is 

 busy with affairs of her own. 



She flies to and fro, peering and 

 spying into the hedges and banks, 

 watching narrowly the progress of 

 the nests that are being built there. 

 She stares at the hedge-sparrow's 

 nest in the blackthorn bush ; she 

 flies low over the wagtail's softly- 

 lined corner in the stonework of the 

 dyke ; she visits again and again 

 the robin's beautifully woven nest 

 in the gnarled root of the alder-tree. 

 They might, any one of them, or all 

 of them, be fitting places in which 

 to put her children out to nurse. 



Wisely she judges and chooses. 



