536 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



about it. In Europe you will be told that it turns into a hawk in the fall, 

 that it can lay eggs of any color it wishes, and numberless other tales, but 

 none quite so marvellous as these ; but all about equally well founded. 

 Possibly the most interesting of all the actual facts in the life of the Euro- 

 pean bird is its habit of laying its eggs in the nests of other birds, and 

 thenceforth leaving them to their fate. In the choice of the foster-mother 

 she is not very particular, but takes a nest where she can readily obtain 



f*UUk 



Fin. 441. — American yellow-billed cuckoo (Coccygus americanus). 



access. Equally remarkable is the voracity, nay, even gluttony, of these 

 birds. Mr. Cuckoo, when he begins to eat, does not know when to stop. 

 All those little endearments which other bird-husbands practise are neg-, 

 lected by him ; and even when that important time of courtship comes 

 round, it is Miss Cuckoo that has to do the courting and to pop the ques- 

 tion, for her lord that is to be is too busy in rilling his stomach to devote 

 much time to such affairs. 



Our American cuckoos, of which we have three, are not so lazy as are 

 their cousins of Europe ; they hatch their own eggs, but no one ever heard 



