THE CUCKOO AND HIS KINDRED. 131 



Cuckoo from having acquired a similar habit 

 especially if the voraciousness of the young is a 

 dominating cause. But conditions of life when the 

 habit was first developed in the Gannet and other 

 small brooded birds may have been utterly different 

 from any to which the parasitic Cuckoos or 

 their common ancestors were subjected, causing 

 divergence of habit in two utterly dissimilar 

 directions, and that many influences might have 

 affected one species that did not reach the other. 

 That the Cuckoo still continues to produce from 

 five to eight eggs each season is a most convincing 

 proof of this. 



We now pass to the question of the development 

 of the choice exercised in the selection of a foster- 

 parent a choice so perfect that the young of the 

 Cuckoo are brought to maturity just as successfully 

 as though the actual parents performed the task. 

 The present wonderful perfection of this choice of 

 species appears to me to be the result of many 

 accumulated experiences, preserved by a long and 

 incessant process of natural selection, and by 

 hereditary transmission. It is more than possible 

 that the habit of parasitism arose in the first place 

 through the young rather than through the parent, 

 and that the selection of the nest is due more to 



