PERCHING BIRDS. 151 



th6 ground, and (as usual where the opening is too 

 large) was contracted by a plastering of clay. 



Few of our native birds possess such pleasing associa* 

 tions as the Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus). The very- 

 name carries us back to the times of merry childhood, 

 and recalls the feeling of joy which the monotonous 

 though musical note awakened in our breasts. We 

 knew that winter was gone, and that violets and prim- 

 roses were to be found in the woods. How blithely did 

 we set off to gather them, and how pleased were we 

 to imitate the well-known call of the " harbinger of 

 spring ! " 



Yet it is only its association with the joyous springr 

 time that makes us welcome the cuckoo, for the bird 

 itself possesses none of those attractive qualities which 

 naturally call forth our admiration. It elicits in us no 

 sympathy, for it exhibits no fidelity to its mate, no 

 affection or tender solicitude for its offspring, but, 

 scattered here and there, it leaves its young ones to the 

 protection and care of strangers. Yet we cannot blame 

 it for this, as it does but obey its natural instincts. It 

 has often struck me as one of the many marvellous ways 

 which our Divine Creator has devised for the preserva- 

 tion of species, that the foster parents never seem to 

 discover the fraud perpetrated upon them, but hatch the 

 strange egg and tend their foundling with as much care 

 as their own offspring. 



Of few of our British birds have such various as- 

 sertions and opinions been hazarded as of the cuckoo, 

 some no doubt arising from want of observation, others 

 from observations carelessly made. Some have stated 

 that the cuckoo has been known to feed her own young 

 one ; this has been denied by others, who have asserted 



