184 THRUSH AND CUCKOO. 



peace and good fellowship. We do not know whether 

 the Blackbird ever sings on its nest, which might have 

 been a very gratifying attraction to the rabbit ; but the 

 Thrush unquestionably sometimes does. Few birds, 

 indeed, seem to be more liberal in the use of their 

 voice; we have heard it repeatedly, on fine nights, in 

 the latter end of May, singing till after dark, and have 

 been roused from our slumbers by a repetition of the 

 same well-known song by two o'clock in the morning. 

 The following anecdote connected with the intelligence 

 of Thrushes, in alluding to their modes of feeding may 

 not be out of place. Not long ago, in the city of Nor- 

 wich, a gentleman had a young Thrush and equally young 

 Blackbird, both in fact nestlings, which he kept in the 

 same cage. The Thrush soon learned to feed itself, not 

 so, however, its companion the Blackbird, which no 

 doubt would soon have died from exhaustion, had not 

 the Thrush undertaken the office of nurse, which it per- 

 severingly continued for ten days, regularly feeding the 

 starving bird, until at the expiration of the above time, 

 it was competent to feed itself. 



Those who have seen a young Cuckoo fed by its un- 

 suspicious step-mother, seated on a bough or rail, open- 

 ing its wide-gaping mouth, as if ready to swallow the 

 poor little bird that hung over it with fond attachment, 

 fluttering its little wings as it dropt a caterpillar down 

 the monster's greedy throat, will be the less surprised at 

 the following anecdote, of what may be called unnatural 

 attachment between Thrushes and birds of a very dif- 

 ferent character. 



We know nothing of the strange ways by which Pro- 

 vidence brings about some of the apparently singular 

 contradictions in its established rules; but knowing for 

 a certainty, that by some strange delusion, a small 

 Hedge-Sparrow is persuaded to look upon an enormous 

 Cuckoo as its own beloved young one, may we not sus- 

 pect that the Cuckoo has some instinctive mode of 

 gaining the affections, or attracting the attention of 



