THE CUCKOO. 



4:J1 



female ia smaller than her mate. In dimension* tin- < 'li.-mii.-l Hill is about equal to the com- 

 mon crow, but owing to tin- Ion- an<l bnil tail, \\hi.-li causes the bird to measure more than 

 two feet in total length, it ap]>ears much larger than is really the case. 



THERE are few birds which are more widely known by good and evil report than the com- 

 mon Cues-' 



As tin- harbinger of spring, it is always welcome to the ears of thorn who have just passed 

 through tli >-s of w inter ; :uul as a In-artless mother, an abandonee of its offspring, and 



an (M-.-iipi.-r of other homes it has been subjected to general reprobation. As is usual in sin h 

 .-a--.--. l>iith opinions :in- too -.weepin- ; f,,r the coniinual rr\ of M Cm-k .MI : i-u.-k >> '." however 

 :iirre.-able it may IM- on the lir-t hearm-. soon be.-, .me-, MX >n< it. >n. MI^ ;in,l fati-uin- to tln-.-ar. 



and the mother Cuckoo is not HO far lost to all feelings of maternity as to take no thought for 





CUCKUO.-tfec.AM 



her young, but ever remains near the place where it has deposited her egg and seems to keep 

 watch over the foster-parents. 



It is well known that the female Cuckoo does not make any nest, but places her egg in 

 the nest of some small bird, and leaves it to the care of its unwitting foster-parents. Various 

 birds are burdened with this charge, such as the hedge-warbler, the pied wagtail, the meadow- 

 pipit, the red-backed shrike, the blackbird, and various finches. Generally, however, the 

 three first are those preferred. Considering the size of the mother-bird, the egg of the Cuckoo 

 i-i remarkably small, being about the same size as that of the skylark, although the latter bird 

 has barely one fourth the dimensions of the former. The little birds, therefore, which are 

 always careless about the color or form of an egg, provided that it be nearly the size of their 

 own productions, and will !* perfectly contented with an egg-shaped pebble or a scraped 

 marble, do not detect the imposition, and hatch the interloper together with their own young. 



The general color of the Cuckoo's egg is mottled reddish-gray, but the tint is very variable 

 in different individual^, as I run testify from personal experience. It has also been noted that 

 the color of the egg varies with the species in whose nest it is to be placed, so that the egg 



