76 WILD BIRDS THROUGH THE YEAR 



trees when it is driven there by alarm ; or sometimes 

 perhaps during the downpour of the sun on July 

 afternoons. 



The young cuckoo succeeds by advertisement. 

 He has the appetite of four or five young hedge 

 sparrows, redbreasts, or pipits, and can get enough 

 food only by forcing himself on the notice of the 

 little birds that have been cheated into adopting 

 him. He advertises himself by keeping always 

 in the eye and the ear of the little bird. There is no 

 mysterious enchantment about the young cuckoo. 

 Birds wait on him with greater devotion than they 

 wait on their own chicks because he clamours louder 

 and longer and thrusts himself to the front more than 

 those chicks can. Imagine a hedge sparrow or 

 pipit chick fling the young cuckoo out of the nest 

 and clamour as loud as he clamours and advertise 

 as persistently the parents would wait on their 

 own chick as anxiously as they wait on the cuckoo. 

 There is no charm in the cuckoo beyond the charm 

 of ceaseless self-advertisement. 



