BIRDS IN THE CALENDAR 



into erroneous conclusions. Yet, of the two, it 

 certainly seems more reasonable to regard 

 the smaller birds as resenting the parasitic 

 habit in the cuckoo than to admit that they 

 can actually welcome the murder of their own 

 offspring to make room in the nest for the 

 ugly changeling foisted on them by this 

 fly-by-night. 



On the lucus a non lucendo principle, the 

 cuckoo is chiefly interesting as a parent. The 

 bare fact is that our British kind builds no 

 nest of its own, but puts its eggs out to hatch, 

 choosing for the purpose the nests of numer- 

 ous small birds which it knows to be suitable. 

 Further investigation of the habits of this 

 not very secretive bird, shows that she first 

 lays her egg on the ground and then carries 

 it in her bill to a neighbouring nest. Whether 

 she first chooses the nest and then lays the 

 egg destined to be hatched in it, or whether 

 she lays each egg when so moved and then 

 hunts about for a home for it, has never been 

 ascertained. The former method seems the 

 more practical of the two. On the other hand, 

 little nests of the right sort are so plentiful in 

 May that, with her mother-instinct to guide 

 60 



