164 CUCKOO NOTES 



and charitable ones among the smaller, 



insectivorous birds. 



Sometimes he is a positive blackguard. 

 One year (1914) I found a cuckoo's egg 

 in a tiny nest of a common wren. When 

 hatched, and only after much difficulty, 

 he hoisted out all his companions, or 

 squashed them, until he broke the nest 

 (round like a ball, and with the hole about 

 an inch or so in diameter in the side) and 

 squatted insolently on top of it. The 

 wrens, with their upright, barred little tails 

 ever jerking with pride, fed him incessantly. 

 The female worked so hard, and the cuckoo 

 was so greedy, that eventually the top of 

 her head was devoid of all feathers, and 

 made quite raw by the beak of her wonder- 

 child. But she was very brave, and was 

 apparently quite indifferent to the risk she 

 ran of one day disappearing altogether. 

 I have often wondered if cuckoos have the 

 power of projecting into other birds the 

 maternal love, or instinct, that is so obviously 



