18 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



of the egg and young robin against his sides irritated 

 the cuckoo: he was continually moving, jerking and 

 wriggling his lumpish body this way and that, as if 

 to get away from the contact. At intervals this irri- 

 tation would reach its culminating point, and a 

 series of mechanical movements would begin, all 

 working blindly but as surely towards the end as if 

 some devilish intelligence animated the seemingly help- 

 less infant parasite. 



Of the two objects in the nest the unhatched egg 

 irritated him the most. The young robin was soft, it 

 yielded when pressed, and could be made somehow 

 to fit into the interstice; but the hard, round shell, 

 pressing against him like a pebble, was torture to 

 him, and at intervals became unendurable. Then 

 would come that magical change in him, when he 

 seemed all at once to become possessed of a preter- 

 natural power and intelligence, and then the blind 

 struggle down in the nest would begin. And after 

 each struggle each round it might be called the 

 cuckoo would fall back again and lie in a state of 

 collapse, as if the mysterious virtue had gone out of 

 him. But in a very short time the pressure on his 

 side would again begin to annoy him, then to tor- 

 ment him, and at last he would be wrought up to 

 a fresh effort. Thus in a space of eight minutes I 

 saw him struggle four separate times, with a period 

 of collapse after each, to get rid of the robin's egg; 

 and each struggle involved a long series of move- 



