424 



THE CUCKOO. 



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

 Generally, however, the first three are those preferred. Considering 

 the size of the mother-bird, the egg of the Cuckoo is 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 lit- 

 tle 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, 



do not detect the imposi- 

 tion, and hatch the inter- ^ 

 loper 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 

 individuals, as I can 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 which is in- 

 tended 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. 



The mode by which the 

 Cuckoo contrives to de- 

 posit her eggs in the nest 

 of sundry birds was ex- 

 tremely dubious until a 

 key was found to the prob- 

 lem by a chance discovery made by Le Vaillant. He had shot a 

 female Cuckoo, and on opening its mouth in order to stuflT it with 

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



The peculiar note of the Cuckoo is so well known as to need no par- 

 ticular description, but the public is not quite so flimiliar with the 

 fact that the note changes according to the time of year. When the 

 bird first begins to sing the notes are full and clear, but toward the 

 end of the season they become hesitating, hoarse, and broken, like the 

 breaking voice of a young lad. This peculiarity was noticed long ago 

 by observant persons, and many are the country rhymes which bear 

 allusion to the voice and the sojourn of the Cuckoo. For example: 



Cuckoos. 



1. Carolina Cuckoo. 2. Black-billed Cuckoo. 



