432 . THE CUCKOO. 



which is intended to be hatched by the hedge-warbler is not precisely of the same color as that 

 which is destined for the nest of the pipit. 



Several experienced naturalists now lean to the opinion that the female Cuckoo really feels 

 a mother's anxiety about her young ; and this theory a somewhat recent one is corroborated 

 by an account kindly sent to me by a lady, at that time unknown to me. A young Cuckoo 

 had been hatched in the nest of some small bird, and after it was able to leave the nest for a 

 short time, was taken under the protection of a female Cuckoo, who had been hovering about 

 the place, and which at once assumed a mother's authority over the young bird, feeding it and 

 calling it just like any other bird. 



On inquiring whether the old Cuckoo ever helped the young one back into the nest, noth- 

 ing could be ascertained. The children of the family, who were naturally interested in the 

 affair, used sometimes to pick up the young bird, and put it back into the nest, but it was 

 often found in its warm home without human intervention, and as it was too helpless and 

 timid to perform such a feat unaided, the natural assumption was that the old bird had given 

 her assistance. 



The mode by which the Cuckoo contrives to deposit her eggs in the nest of sundry birds 

 was extremely dubious, until a key was found to the problem by a chance discovery made by 

 Le Vaillant. He had shot a female Cuckoo, and on opening its mouth in order to stuff it with 

 tow, he found an egg lodged very snugly within the throat. 



When hatched, the proceedings of the young Cuckoo are very strange. As in process of 

 time it would be a comparatively large bird, the nest would soon be far too small to contain 

 the whole family ; so the young bird, almost as soon as it can scramble about the nest, sets 

 deliberately to work to turn out all the other eggs or nestlings. This it accomplishes by 

 getting its tail under each egg or young bird in succession, wriggling them on to its back, and 

 then cleverly pitching them over the side of the nest. It is rather curious that in its earlier 

 days it only throws the eggs over, its more murderous propensities not being developed until 

 a more advanced age. 



There seems to be some peculiarity in the nature of the Cuckoo which forces other birds 

 to cater for its benefit, as even in the case of a tame and wing-clipped Cuckoo, which was 

 allowed to wander about a lawn, the little birds used to assemble about it with food in their 

 mouths, and feed it as long as it chose to demand their aid. 



Sometimes two Cuckoo's eggs have been laid in the same nest; when they are hatched 

 there is a mutual struggle for the sole possession of the nest. Dr. Jenner, in his well-known 

 and most valuable paper on this bird, gives the following account of such a strife : 



"Two Cuckoos and a hedge-sparrow were hatched in the same nest this morning; one 

 hedge-sparrow's egg remained unhatched. In a few hours after, a combat began between the 

 Cuckoos for the possession of the nest, which continued undetermined until the next afternoon, 

 when one of them, which was somewhat superior in size, turned out the other, together with 

 the young hedge-sparrow and the unhatched egg. This contest was very remarkable. The 

 combatants alternately appeared to have the advantage, as each carried the other several 

 times nearly to the top of the nest, and then sank down again oppressed by the weight of its 

 burden, till, at length, after various efforts, the strongest prevailed, and was afterwards brought 

 tip by the hedge-sparrows." 



In order to enable the young Cuckoo to perform this curious feat, its back is very different 

 in shape from that of ordinary birds, being very broad from the shoulder downwards, leaving 

 a well-marked depression in the middle, on which the egg or young bird rests while it is being 

 carried to the edge of the nest. In about a fortnight this cavity is filled up, and the young 

 bird has nothing extraordinary in its appearance. 



From its peculiar mode of foisting off its young upon other birds, its character would seem 

 to be of a solitary nature. Such, however, is not the case, for at some periods of the year 

 these birds may be seen in considerable numbers, playing with each other or feeding in close 

 proximity. Upwards of twenty have been observed in a single field, feeding on the caterpillars 

 of the burnet moth, and several communications have been addressed to sport journals in 

 which the subject of natural history is discussed, relating similar occurrences. One of these 



