WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 323 



appearance of hundreds of those jet-black, long- 

 winged birds, flying with marvellous rapidity, and 

 threading an inextricable maze almost, are it were, 

 under foot, is very striking. 



The proverbial present of a white elephant is paral- 

 leled in bird life by the gift of the cuckoo's egg. The 

 bird whose nest is chosen never deserts the strange 

 changeling, but seems to feel feeding the young cuckoo 

 to be a sacred duty, and sees its own young ejected 

 and perishing without apparent concern. My atten- 

 tion was called one spring to a robin's nest made in 

 a stubble rick ; there chanced to be a slight hollow 

 in the side of the rick, and this had been enlarged. 

 A cuckoo laid her egg in the nest, and as it happened 

 to be near some cowsheds it was found and watched. 

 When the young bird began to get fledged some 

 sticks were inserted in the rick so as to form a cage, 

 that it might not escape, and there the cuckoo grew to 

 maturity and to full feather. 



All the while the labour undergone by the robins in 

 supplying the wide throat of the cuckoo with food 

 was something incredible. It was only necessary to 

 wait a very few minutes before one or other came, 

 but the voracious creature seemed never satisfied ; 

 he was bigger than both his foster-parents put to- 

 gether, and they waited on him like slaves. It was 

 really distressing to see their unrewarded toil. Now, 

 no argument will ever convince me that the robin or 

 the wagtail, or any other bird in whose nest the 

 cuckoo lays its egg, can ever confound the intruding 



