106 CUCKOO. 



having been found, as hereafter mentioned, in the nest of a 

 Greenfinch, a Linnet, and a Chaffinch. It is, however, on 

 the other hand, very remarkable that such birds as these latter 

 will very often, though not always, in such case, feed the 

 young Cuckoo with insects; their own most natural food being 

 grain, and with which latter, when prepared in their own 

 craw, they feed their own young. Even a Canary, in whose 

 cage a young Cuckoo was lodged, fed it with caterpillars 

 placed there for the purpose, instead of with the seed on 

 which she herself was always accustomed to feed. At times, 

 however, birds of the Finch tribe, at whose door these un- 

 welcome foundlings have been dropped, supply them with 

 young wheat, vetches, tender blades of grass, and seeds of 

 different kinds. 



The small bird has been known even to follow its foster- 

 child into a cage, and to feed it there, as well as in other 

 instances to attend upon it outside the cage. William Reynolds, 

 Esq., of Walton, near Grlastonbury, Somersetshire, has written 

 me word of an instance of this in the case of a Robin; and 

 of another which fed her charge within thirty feet of a con- 

 stant thoroughfare. The aperture to the nest was only three 

 inches and a half wide, and when the young Cuckoo found 

 himself becoming rather straitened in his circumstances, he 

 worked himself out, and fell down, which led to his discovery 

 and capture; but when able to fly he was restored to liberty. 



Again, it is a fact worthy of being remarked in connexion 

 with the above, though militating strangely against the general 

 theory to be deduced from it, that small birds will very 

 frequently, perhaps as frequently as they suffer the Cuckoo's 

 egg to remain in their nest, turn it out. If then they have 

 this antipathy, certainly no unreasonable one, against the 

 unwarrantable intrusion, how are they influenced to their more 

 than ordinary and even, so to speak, unnatural care of their 

 supposititious foster-children ? 



The Cuckoo drinks frequently. They may often be seen 



Eursued, or rather followed by small birds, especially by Tit- 

 irks, which can hardly be wondered at after the facts here 

 mentioned, which may also well leave it in doubt whether it 

 be in hostility, or a kind of stupid and wondering admiration. 

 Swifts join in the pursuit, though the Cuckoo does not lay 

 her egg in their nests: their migration is too early for her 

 young. 



The food of the young Cuckoo consists of caterpillars, small 



