AUGUST. 125 



ruby red is freely fed by many of the grey and 

 black crows, in one of whose nests the egg was 

 placed. But we have much to learn of such seeming 

 aberrations of parental instinct ; for although most 

 birds exhibit hostility towards their neighbours' 

 children domestic fowls and ducks will kill them, 

 for instance, as a rule yet young house-martins are 

 sometimes fed by three or four old birds, and occa- 

 sionally birds of one kind will even voluntarily adopt 

 children of another. Thus a robin has been seen to 

 feed young thrushes, although, contrariwise, a thrush 

 has been seen to eat young robins ; while there seems 

 to be no incongruity of species that a cat, a dog, 

 or a hen will not overlook when " motherly " inclined. 

 More curious still is the friendly way in which two 

 female cats, previously enemies, will sometimes share 

 the nursing of the family of one of them, if the other 

 has lost her kittens. 



MISTAKEN FOR A HAWK. 



In the case of the young cuckoo, however, the 

 devotion of his foster-parents and the occasional kind- 

 ness of other birds, appears the more remarkable 

 from his resemblance to a hawk, which sometimes 

 causes the surrounding small birds to mob him, 

 instead of feeding him. They quickly desist, how- 

 ever, on discovering their mistake, which seems usually 

 to have arisen from his clumsy manner of alighting 

 upon a hedge. A bird with long wings and tail 

 naturally finds this difficult, because before his feet 

 have grasped one twig, his wings and tail strike 

 several. Even turtle-doves and wood-pigeons make 



