NATURE'S CAROL SINGERS. 



away without the slightest trouble, but 

 when I attempted to impose upon a 

 Ringed Plover, whose eggs I found in 

 a little declivity on a shingly beach, 

 she detected the fraud at once, and 

 tapping my dummy eggs with her bill, 

 turned round and walked away in 

 disgust. 



In order to prove how easily some 

 birds are duped, I may mention that 

 two lady friends of mine have, for the 

 last three or four seasons, taken a clutch 

 of Starling's eggs out of a hole in a 

 stable wall, and replaced them by one 

 common fowl's egg, and that on each 

 occasion the foster-mother has success- 

 fully hatched out a chick. 



The young Cuckoo arrives into the 

 world without a scrap of down or the 

 sign of a feather on its dusky, ugly 

 little body. Very soon after it is hatched 

 it begins to show signs of great rest- 

 lessness and. energy, endeavouring to 

 throw out whatever else there may be 

 in the nest in the shape of eggs or 

 young. Nature has equipped the little 

 monster well for its murderous task, 

 by providing a hollow between its 

 broad shoulders for the reception of 

 its victims. It makes great efforts to 

 8 



