162 THE ROLL OF THE SEASONS 



he had relied on the testimony of a paid watcher. 

 The watcher, however, was a good observer. We 

 have now, from several naturalists, photographs of 

 the blind, hollow-backed nestling stooping beneath 

 eggs or fellow-chicks and heaving them from the 

 nest, panting terribly between the instalments of its 

 horrible task, but persisting till it has the whole 

 nursery to itself. Not only the photographers, but 

 many casual observers have seen the wretched foster- 

 parents feeding their monstrous charge, often having 

 to perch upon its shoulders to reach its mouth, and 

 so pecked by its impatient ingratitude as to be bald. 

 Often the work wears them to death, and if this occurs 

 before the maturity of the cuckoo, its plaintive baby- 

 cry fetches to it new nurses who undertake to feed it 

 though the incubus has not grown upon them out of 

 a strange mishap to a clutch of their own beautiful 

 eggs. 



Beyond the grand question, how the cuckoo habit 

 ever came to be contracted, there is one notable link 

 in the bird's life-history still rather dim. In what 

 way is its hawk-like appearance useful to it ? Is it 

 true that the process of introducing the egg into the 

 nest is preceded by a taunting visit from the cock, so 

 that the small birds absent themselves from the nest 

 in order to chase a supposed hawk from the neigh- 

 bourhood ? And is there to the senses of birds some 

 subtle difference by virtue of which the hen is less 

 hawk-like, and so more tolerable to her intended 

 dupes ? That, at any rate, is the line of development 

 taken by the Indian koel, the male of which resembles 

 a crow, while the female is a poor, drab, inoffensive- 

 looking bird which slips quietly up to the nest while 



