THE BOOK OF MIGRATORY BIRDS 193 



was fed. Its wild, outrageously wild, nature never for- 

 sook it. It would screech, and exhibit unmistaken signs 

 of disgust at its captivity, and all attempts at pacification 

 ended in the same way. It was, therefore, set free. 



It is a curious phenomenon of nature, that the baby 

 cuckoo is apparently endowed with strength ami vigour 

 far beyond that of the ordinary bird, and it has a marked 

 propensity to rid the nest of other occupants. It 

 endeavours to the utmost of its powers to bundle the real 

 owners or the progeny of the real owners headlong from 

 the nest, for a space of some ten or twelve days, after 

 which time, if its herculean efforts are unavailing, it 

 assumes a quiet attitude, and remains to all intents and 

 purposes in perfect harmony with its neighbours. The 

 very formation deformity, perhaps, would be the better 

 word of its body, assists its will-power, for close anato- 

 mists concur in the opinion that it has an extraordinary 

 hollow or depression between the shoulders, which in no 

 small degree conduces to assist the young bird in working 

 itself under the other young, and getting them on its 

 shoulders, for the toppling over process, for which it is 

 noted. 



As I have already and previously intimated, we have not 

 a very high opinion of the cuckoo as a musician, or 

 vocalist, because he is monotonous until he becomes bi- 

 lingual, and gargles, or crows, or croaks. Those persons 

 who do not dwell constantly in the heart of the country 

 are apt to think and chortle poetically of many rural sounds 

 which we bucolics, or agrestics, adjure prosaically; but 

 the present point is that the gargling of the cuckoo is 

 synchronal with the closing of the principal act of the 

 annual trouting drama. After the passing of the drake, 

 both trout and trout-fishers take a rest of many bars' 

 duration, and so we look back and review the recent 

 circumstances. 



