130 BRITISH BIRDS' EGGS. 



During the earlier summer season the air seems haunted 

 with the Cuckoo's voice, and wherever we may be, whether 

 in green or shady lanes, or on the wild and open heath, the 

 shouting Cuckoo's tones, softened by distance, or startling 

 by their nearness, fall on the ear; sounds most grateful 

 when first heard, as the herald of genial seasons, and, to our- 

 selves, never becoming unwelcome by continuance. 



Why the Cuckoo wanders from place to place, seeking 

 some stolen home for its future progeny, and why it resigns 

 the care of its young to strangers rather than rear them 

 and provide for them itself, are problems not perhaps per- 

 fectly solved ; though, without doubt, a reason exists, which, 

 discovered, would vindicate the wisdom and benevolence of 

 the Creator in this arrangement. The most probable sug- 

 gestion which we have met with on the subject, is that of 

 Dr. Jenner, who supposed that the short residence of the 

 Cuckoo in this country incapacitated it for rearing its young. 

 Arriving about the middle of April, its egg is seldom ready 

 for incubation, he remarks, before the middle of May; a 

 fortnight passes before the egg can be hatched ; three weeks 

 more elapse before the young birds can fly ; and during five 

 weeks more the foster-parents continue to feed it; so that 

 if a Cuckoo should be ready with an egg much sooner than 



