CUCKOO. REED- WREN. 103 



lucky, for it enabled them to take two eggs from each nest 

 without feeling any compunction. 



They found several of the beautiful purse-like nests of the 

 reed wrens attached midway up the tall reed-stems. In one of 

 them tnere was a young cuckoo, the sole occupant of the nest. 

 What had become of the little reed-wrens was plainly to be 

 seen by the bodies which strewed the ground beneath. The 

 poor little fledglings had been ousted from their home by 

 the broad-backed cuckoo. I suppose we ought not to call 



CUCKOO AND EGG. 



him cruel, because it is the instinct of self-preservation which 

 makes him behave so badly. If the young birds, the legiti- 

 mate owners of the nest, had been allowed to remain, the old 

 birds could not have fed them all, and the young cuckoo 

 must have starved. The boys watched the nest for some time 

 to see the old birds feed it, and they were greatly delighted 

 to see the way in which the reed-wreris managed it. Ihey 

 perched on the young cuckods back while they placed the food in 



