64 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



with its back like the cuckoo, but by the use 

 of its beak, which, when this bird is quite 

 young, is hooked at the end of both jaws, 

 and so is well shaped for taking a tight hold 

 of anything. But so far very little is known 

 about this part of the honey-guide's history, 

 and there is a great deal left to be found out 

 about it; the most interesting thing to dis- 

 cover would be how it gets the idea of leading 

 people to bees' nests, for the barbets certainly 

 would have no idea of teaching it that ! 



This is probably the trouble of the parasitic 

 birds' lives ; they never get properly edu- 

 cated, and have to find out everything for 

 themselves, as the foster-parents, however 

 devoted they may be, cannot teach them so 

 much as parents of their own kind would be 

 able to do. Mr. Hudson says that the young 

 cow-bird in South America is often carried off 

 by the slow and clumsy carrion-hawk, because 

 when it is out of the nest it sits on exposed 

 perches, and that it does not understand the 

 warnings its foster-parents try to give it; 

 and any one may see here how the young 

 cuckoo, in the brown-barred plumage of its 

 first year, sits in places where it is easily seen, 



