280 LECTUEES ON BIOLOGY 



Both males and females share with extraordinary devotion in 

 the task of hatching and obtaining food, and it seems to us 

 quite unnatural that the cuckoo, which is a very faithless wife, 

 giving herself to any male, leaves the hatching of her eggs to 

 other smaller birds. More frequently it is the males who do not 

 trouble about their young or are even hostile to them, so that the 

 female is barely able to protect the young against the attacks of 

 their brutal sire. 



FIG. 69. BRAZILIAN FROG, Pipa americana, WITH YOUNG. 



The female rhinoceros-bird, to mention only one instance, 

 exhibits a particularly touching devotion to her young. It 

 almost seems as if these birds do not trust to their own 

 patience and endurance, and in order to prevent themselves from 

 leaving their eggs they actually close up the nest-hole in the tree 

 with their faeces, letting only a small aperture remain through 

 which the female receives food from the male. 



By way of contrast, other birds know how to make hatching 

 an easy task. The Australian Talegalla (Catheturus lathame) 

 and some related species gather heaps of leaves and decaying 



