THE CUCKOO 488 



.(.... I ;iv (;, i- a s it goes, though it lacks invasion o\\ m_: to the neglect 

 in state the time of day at which the birth of the cuckoo and the first 

 attempt to eject respectively took place. More evidence is needed. 

 If it does eventually prove beyond all question that tin- n s(linr ra n 

 |M>rforni the act of eviction shortly after birth, the interest of the 

 problem rained by the contrast, already alluded to, namely, between 

 the creature's apparent feebleness and its sudden accession of extra- 

 ordinary vigour, will be very greatly increased. That, at the age of 

 two days, it should be able to throw out what to it must he a very 

 heavy weight, is astonishing enough ; that it should do so a few hours 

 after birth would border on the miraculous. 



What part does the foster-jwrent play in the act which has so 

 tragic a termination for its own offspring? Information on this point, 

 again, is scanty, attention having been chiefly directed to the pro- 

 ceedings of the young cuckoo, but what there is point - to an attitude 

 of complete indifference. In the account given by Mr. Hancock of 

 the ejection of a young hedge-sparrow, it is stated that " the mother 

 was present, but took no notice of the affair going on, and looked on 

 calmly." The same mother-bird was observed to brood the young 

 cuckoo shortly after the eviction of one of her eggs. She " remained 

 ;i \ery short time on the nest and seemed very uneasy, raising herself 

 and standing in the m-i Her uneasiness was no doubt due to the 

 movements of the nestling cuckoo. The foster-parent sometimes 

 has beneath her eyes the dead or dying bodies of her own nestlings. 

 This was the case with the robin in the incident related by Mr. 

 Hudson. She sat for hours wanning the destroyer of her brood, 

 while but a few inches away, on a broad green leaf, fronting her gaze, 

 lay one of her evicted infants, "growing colder by degrees, hour 

 by hour, motionless except when it lifted its head as if to receive 

 food, then dropped it again, and when, at intervals, it twitched its 

 body as if trying to move." It seems that if her nestlings are not 

 where the mother expects them to be in the nest then for her they 



1 Hampshire Day*, p. 24. 

 VOL. II. 3Q 



