AN OVER-FOND MOTHER. 201 



by kind, beguiling the other young birds, and intercepting 

 the meat from them, groweth thereby fat and faire-liking ; 

 whereby it conies into speciall grace and favour with the dam of 

 the rest, and nource to it. She joieth to see so goodly a bird 

 toward ; and wonders at her selfe that she hath hatched and 

 raised so trim a chick. The rest which are her owne indeed, she 

 sets no store by, as if they were changelings ; but in regard of 

 that one, counteth them all bastards and misbegotten ; yea, and 

 suffereth them to be eaten and deuoured of the other euen before 

 her face : and this she doth so long, untill the young Cuckow, 

 being once fledge and readie to flie abroad, is so bold as to seize 

 on the old Titling, and to eat her up that hatched her. And by 

 that time there is not another bird again for goodnesse and 

 sweetnesse of meat comparable to the young Cuckow." 



The food of the Cuckoo consists almost exclusively of insects o 

 various kinds, but principally caterpillars, though it appears 

 occasionally to vary its diet by partaking of berries and garden- 

 fruits. It is commonly believed by country people that the 

 Cuckoo occasionally indulges also in the eggs of small birds. 

 Hence the allusion in the well-known rhyme : 



" The Cuckoo's a fine bird, 



She sings as she flies ; 

 She brings us good tidings, 



She tells us no lies. 

 She sucks little birds' eggs 



To make her voice clear ; 

 And when she sings ' Cuckoo ' 



The summer is near." 



There is some reason to believe that this charge is really true. 

 Mr. Jesse mentions the case of one which was kept in a cage, and 

 fed regularly on fresh meat cut small and mixed with soaked 

 bread and raw egg, and which at length killed itself by attempting 

 to swallow a Yellowhammer's egg, at which it eagerly caught. 

 Moreover Audubon says distinctly that the yellow-billed Cuckoo 

 of America (Cuculns Americanus), which, by the way, is an 

 occasional visitor to our own shores, constantly robs the nests of 

 smaller birds of their eggs, which it sucks with great avidity. 



One of the most brilliant of British birds is the Kingfisher 

 (Alcedo ispida), the Haley on of the ancients, which according to 

 Aldrovandi is " the most celebrated and besung " of all feathered 

 fowl, real or imaginary. 



