THE CUCKOO 



curious belief that, with lingering memories 

 of the days when, a year ago, they devoted 

 themselves to the ugly foster-child, the little 

 birds still regard the stranger with affection. 

 If so, then they have an eccentric way of 

 showing it, and the cuckoo, driven by the 

 chattering little termagants from pillar to 

 post, may well pray to be saved from its 

 friends. On the other hand, even though con- 

 vinced of their hostility, it is not easy to 

 believe, as some folks tell us, that they mis- 

 take the cuckoo for a hawk. Even the human 

 eye, though slower to take note of such differ- 

 ences, can distinguish between the two, and 

 the cuckoo's note would still further un- 

 deceive them. The most satisfactory explana- 

 tion of all perhaps is that the nest memories 

 do in truth survive, not, however, investing 

 the cuckoo with a halo of romance, but rather 

 branding it as an object of suspicion, an 

 interloper, to be driven out of the neighbour- 

 hood at all costs ere it has time to billet its 

 offspring on the hard-working residents. All 

 of which is, needless to say, the merest guess- 

 work, since any attempt to interpret the 

 simplest actions of birds is likely to lead us 

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