50 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



its disappearance from Europe in the winter, 

 is, of course, the origin of the old fable that 

 the cuckoo actually turned into a hawk at 

 that season ; this is so old a mistake that 

 it was corrected by Aristotle, the tutor of 

 Alexander the Great, and yet some people 

 believe it still ! 



The little birds also are always making 

 this blunder, for they " mob " the cuckoo 

 as if it were really an enemy which they 

 would like to drive away ; and in the aviaries 

 at the Zoo the keepers do not like to have a 

 cuckoo loose among the other birds, as these 

 are very likely to get frightened at finding 

 themselves shut up with what they imagine 

 is their worst enemy. 



Very likely this hawk-like look is useful 

 to the cuckoo when she comes near a small 

 bird's nest to put her egg there, for it may 

 make the little birds afraid to drive her away ; 

 but in any case she almost always chooses 

 the nests of birds much smaller than herself, 

 so that they have not much chance of 

 fighting against her. If she simply took the 

 easiest nests to find we should discover plenty 

 of cuckoos' eggs in thrushes' and blackbirds' 



