BIRDS THAT ARE BOARDED OUT 55 



each other's nests, and so long as the young 

 got brought up somehow a bird which simply 

 took up this habit would get on all right; 

 but it is difficult to see how these other strange 

 ways of the cuckoo arose. At any rate, it 

 seems plain that we ought not to call the 

 cuckoo a silly bird, as is often done every one 

 has heard the expression " you silly cuckoo " 

 for it certainly knows its own business very 

 well, and some people who have reared and 

 kept young cuckoos have found them very 

 intelligent pets. 



There are some stories about the cuckoo 

 having been known to lay its eggs on the bare 

 ground and sit on them itself; but there is 

 always the chance, in cases like these, of 

 people having mistaken the nightjar for the 

 cuckoo, since the nightjar lays on the ground 

 without making any nest, and in size and 

 shape and flight is not at all unlike the cuckoo. 

 But any one with any experience ought to be 

 able to tell the two birds apart ; the nightjar 

 is a brown bird, while the cuckoo is grey, 

 except when it is young, when it would not 

 be laying at all. 



It seems natural to speak of " the " cuckoo, 



