FOSTER MOTHER TREE 

 PIPIT STRETCHING HER- 



NATURE'S CAROL SINGERS. 



has received at the 

 hands of naturalists 

 for generations. 



It arrives in this 

 country during April, 

 and departs again in July r 

 leaving its uncared-for 

 young ones to follow, -in 

 August and September, 

 to the winter quarters 

 of the species in Africa's sunny clime. 



The bird makes no attempt whatever 

 at nest-building, but deposits its eggs 

 singly, as a rule in those of small birds, 

 and allows the little dupes to hatch 

 out and rear its young. From its simi- 

 larity in appearance to a small hawk the 

 ancients believed that in the winter it 

 changed into one. They were also firmly 

 convinced that young Cuckoos not only 

 swallowed all the other chicks in the 

 nests in which they were hatched out 

 themselves, but, as a mark of ingrati- 

 tude, finally devoured their foster- 

 parents. Although this was, of course, 

 quite wrong, the real facts of the bird's 

 life and career are quite as romantic, 

 as we shall see presently. 



Up to quite recently, people supposed 

 that the female Cuckoo, when about 



