THE YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO 



you want to scatter them a little, or to take a pair, hold the food 

 out of their reach and coax them to it. If they won't come, leave 

 them alone until the next day. When they are ready to desert the 

 nest, they will follow egg, properly prepared. If you want to 

 set them in some special place, never pick them up and pull them 

 by main force. If they are in the nest they will grip with their 

 feet and wreck it. If they are on a limb you will almost pull the 

 tender little things in two. Slip your fingers into the nest and 

 gently work them under their feet. The little toes will clasp 

 firmly around the fingers and by moving slowly, avoiding noise 

 and being gentle with them you can do what you choose. 



I have been told by nature workers and read in many books 

 that it was impossible to take a young bird from the nest, put it 

 back, and have it stay. I should not advise any one lacking bird 

 sense and years of experience to try it; but I have done it all my 

 life, and never in my life have I failed to put back a young bird 

 taken from a nest, and it always stays. This may be due to the 

 fact that I never try to lift a baby from a nest unless it knows 

 me and will accept food from me, and I am sure I can manage it. 

 I should not dream of walking up to a nest of young birds and 

 attempting to touch them, without preliminary acquaintance. Of 

 course they would jump, even if they were not ready to go for 

 days. 



If any one having a prejudice against the Cuckoo will enter 

 its dim, leafy haunts, make friends with it until he learns at first 

 hand its habits and nature, cultivate the young to the handling 

 point, and come away without being a Cuckoo enthusiast, he is a 

 very queer person. 



In June of '06, after this book was in the hands of its pub- 

 lishers, Mr. Black said to me, "There is a Cuckoo nest you should 

 see on the Aspy place." 



153 



