26 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



country, is now an admitted fact, and the constant followii 

 of the female bird by several of the opposite sex, not 

 allows of no opportunity for pairing for life, but takes 

 every possibility of her having time to build a nest. That tl 

 Cuckoo is polyandrous seems to be equally certain, and tl 

 note of the female is also different from that of the mal 

 wh'ch is the bird which utters the well-known " Cuckoo " 

 The female's, on the other hand, is a " whittling " or " ware 

 burbling " cry, unlike that of any other British bird, and, wh< 

 uttered, is quite sufficient to set all the male Cuckoos calling fc 

 some distance round. The flight of the Cuckoo is very simil 

 to that of a Hawk, and the appearance of one on the wii 

 is the signal for its being mobbed by Swallows, Martins, 

 other small birds, just as if it were really a Bird of Pn 

 Whether the smaller species really mistake it for a Hai 

 or really recognise it as a common enemy which brings dis 

 ter at times on their progeny, one can hardly say, but that 

 Accipitrine character is useful to the Cuckoo can hardly 

 doubted, as will be seen from the narrative which Mrs. Frasci 

 has given of a singular occurrence which came under her 

 notice. 



This lady had found a Stonechat's nest, and was engaged 

 in painting a picture in its vicinity, when she saw a female 

 Cuckoo fly down to the ground with an egg in its bill. At the 

 same moment the male Cuckoo swooped down near the Stone 

 chats, when the foolish little birds at once flew to attack it and 

 drive it from their nest, and pursued it for some distance, 

 during which interval the female Cuckoo quietly approached 

 the nest and dropped her egg into the latter. She then uttered 

 her peculiar call, and was immediately joined by the male, anc 

 both birds flew off together in triumph. 



The Cuckoo, having laid her egg, carries it about in her bill 

 and places it in the nest which she selects as a suitable one foi 

 the well-being of her youngster when it is hatched. To th< 

 fact that Cuckoos have been shot with an egg in their mouth u 

 no doubt due the myth that the bird devours eggs, no on< 

 having, apparently, surmised that the egg which the bird wa.< 

 carrying might be its own ! Having deposited the egg, it 

 generally supposed that the old female takes no further interest 

 in its offspring, and certainly it would appear that, by theii 





