The Avifauna. 93 



satisfied with food. I have seen it pick up three meal- 

 worms at once when I threw in about a dozen, in the 

 hope it might take one for itself; but no — every one he 

 scrambled for went down the cuckoo's throat, never 

 apparently swallowing one itself. Strange to say, 

 one of the cardinals (Pope, South American) has 

 taken charge of the cuckoo, and is feeding it well." 

 Eventually it picked its food for itself, and up till the 

 end of October seemed to thrive; but on the night of 

 the 30th of that month several degrees of frost were 

 encountered, and "the following morning," the lady 

 wrote, "I saw at once he was doomed, but his end was 

 so gentle that he really seemed to sleep away." 



This incident affords another illustration of the 

 futility of practising experiments where the natural 

 instincts of the creatures involved and the law of 

 adaptation are not fully considered. In few cases 

 have we found experiments in natural history of 

 the character here referred to succeed. So long as 

 external circumstances constrain wild birds or animals 

 to adapt themselves to their somewhat anomalous 

 position, they will submit to it, but in the long-run 



