THE CUCKOO 
her, she could always find one at a few 
moments' notice. Some people, who are 
never so happy as when making the wonders 
of Nature seem still more wonderful than 
they really are, have declared that the cuckoo 
lays eggs to match those among which she 
deposits them, or that, at any rate, she 
chooses the nests of birds whose eggs ap- 
proximately resemble her own. I should have 
liked to believe this, but am unfortunately 
debarred by the memory of about forty 
cuckoo's eggs that I took, seven-and-twenty 
summers ago, in the woods round Dartford 
Heath. The majority of these were found in 
hedgesparrows' nests, and the absolute dis- 
similarity between the great spotted egg of 
the cuckoo and the little blue egg of its so- 
called dupe would have impressed even a 
colour-blind animal. Occasionally, I believe, 
a blue cuckoo's egg has been found, but such 
a freak could hardly be the result of design. 
As a matter of fact, there is no need for any 
such elaborate deception. Up to the moment 
of hatching, the little foster-parents have in 
all probability no suspicion of the trick that 
has been played on them. Birds do not take 
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