BIRDS. 



Interesting anecdote. 



about with all the marks of anguish, and using a 

 note highly expressive of distress; the cuckoo 

 at length, after a long pursuit, returned to a 

 bough much nearer to the nest than she had yet 

 been; a moment was not therefore to be lost; 

 one of the robins rushed under the feathers of 

 the cuckoo's tail, and fell to pecking her with 

 unabating fury, while she kept shivering, her 

 bill open so very wide, that the other robin 

 which attaced her in front, threw herself in so 

 far that no part of her head was to be seen, and 

 the cuckoo, appearing to be seized with a kind 

 of vertigo, fell towards the ground, hanging with 

 her claws to the branch on which she had perch- 

 ed, while her relentless enemies availed them- 

 selves of her condition, and would probably have 

 put a period to her existence had not a sudden 

 storm put a termination to the combat." 



Those birds that are hatched early in the 

 spring constantly prove the most strong and 

 vigorous offspring; while the feeble and tender 

 children of declining summer or autumn are sel- 

 dom capable of sustaining the severities ot a 

 rigorous winter. But this is a circumstance that 

 only Uappens in consequence of their nests being 

 repeatedly pillaged, in spite of which they perse- 

 vere in their efforts for a new progeny. 



c 2 



