138 ANIMALS OF TO-DAY 



English sparrow are the only unwelcome guests ; 

 but I am told that for the rabbit, now so terribly 

 prolific in Australia, there has been found another 

 market, soon to be developed. 



THE CUCKOO 



In that very pleasant book by Mr. G. A. B. Dewar, 

 Wild Life in Hampshire Highlands, the author 

 has a good deal to say about my favourite, the 

 cuckoo, that singular bird so often heard and so 

 rarely seen, excepting at a distance and on the 

 wing. Not long ago I made a closer acquaintance 

 with a cuckoo than I had ever had before. Early 

 in June 1899 I was lounging on the lawn of a country 

 house in Buckinghamshire watching the children 

 playing croquet, when a French lady came up to 

 me with a strange bird in her hands. " Voila ! 

 monsieur," cried she, "c'est un coucou, n'est-ce-pas?" 

 "Ah oui, madame," said I, "c'est une chose extra- 

 ordinaire." The bird apparently in its headlong 

 flight had accidentally dashed through the bath- 

 room window, either in pursuit of, or being pursued 

 by a bevy of small birds, who have no friendly feeling 

 towards this robber of their nests and murderer of 

 their young ; and there she captured it. It was 

 a lovely young specimen, in its finest plumage. 

 I had never seen one so near at hand before. The 

 youngsters all wanted to keep it in a cage, but I 

 felt sure that it would soon die in captivity, and so 



