THE CUCKOO. 79 



devote themselves to its support, that they pay no further 

 attention to their own ejected brood, but, allowing them to 

 lie and starve on the ground where they have been thrown 

 by the intruder, they take the most assiduous care of their 

 strange charge, and will even follow it into confinement 

 and feed it. 



This is all the more remarkable because the Cuckoo, 

 probably owing to its resemblance to the hawk, is fre- 

 quently mobbed by all the smaller birds in its vicinity. 



Why a bird so bold and fierce in its disposition should 

 be so shiftless and remiss in the discharge of parental 

 duties, and so deficient in the almost universal characteristic 

 of philoprogenitiveness, is a question that has often been 

 asked, but will probably never be satisfactorily answered. 



The plumage of the male Cuckoo is of a dark ash 

 colour on the back ; the breast is of a ligJiter shade, and 

 the feathers below the breast are a dull wJiite barred with 

 black ; the tail-feathers are similar, but are all tipped with 

 w^hite. The bill is slightly curved, red on the inside, and 

 in the case of young birds always open. 



The length of the male is about fourteen inches ; the 

 female is a little smaller, but with the exception of being 

 somewhat darker in plumage differs very slightly from 

 the male. 



The young birds have the whole of the upper part of 

 the body barred alternately with reddish brown and clove 

 brown, and when ready to leave the nest the tail is very 

 short and the feathers tipped with white. 



The song '* Cuckoo " is nearly always uttered whilst 

 the bird is flying, or immediately after settling; and 

 this circumstance may possibly explain the fact that the 

 Cuckoo is silent in captivity. In addition to this cry the 



