132 THE LIFE OF A BIRD, 



conceived, if it were really performed by the bird, 

 which is by no means improbable. 



Some birds, not willing to give themselves the 

 trouble of constructing a nest, determine to select 

 that of others more industrious than themselves. 

 This, it may be said, is bad enough ; but what we 

 have next to mention respecting them is even 

 worse ; for these birds are guilty of depositing 

 their eggs in the nests of others, and of for ever 

 afterwards relinquishing the care of them. There 

 is even a worse feature in this transaction than 

 either of these, and that is, that very commonly 

 the eggs of the unfortunate bird upon whom this 

 outrage is committed are destroyed and thrust out 

 of the nest by the young bird hatched from the 

 intruder's egg, and are often to be seen, a spec- 

 tacle of ruin and desolation, at the foot of the 

 tree. 



The cuckoo has long laboured under this im- 

 putation, and with only too much justice. But it 

 has also been accused of other crimes. Thus it is 

 a complaint put by a poet in the mouth of a bird, 

 that while it sings 



11 With harmless true intent, 

 The cuckoo sucks mine eggs with foul deceit :" 



