THE CUCKOO. 133 



Statistical Account, Rescobie) who saw them coming 

 to the surface of the lake on the morning of the llth 

 of May, and would have seen the ebullition caused by 

 their ascent, had it not been for the ripple of the water, 

 and who had not the least doubt that they went back 

 to their old quarters at the bottom for eight days more, 

 from some error in the subaqueous thermometer, by 

 which they of course found out when summer came, 

 edges off the responsibility upon " the observer/' All 

 those matters in which there is a violation of the com- 

 mon laws of nature in the fact alleged, and an avoiding 

 of the direct proof, put us always in mind of the re- 

 mark of the old Malmsbury philosopher, " He that 

 really sees a spirit in a dream, only dreams that he 

 sees a spirit." 



That the cuckoo does take possession of the nests 

 of other birds we do not question, and that he eats 

 the eggs of other birds, as well as worms and insects, 

 we also know, because, though it is a very wary as 

 well as a shy bird, we have caught it in the fact ; we 

 also admit that, after the young cuckoo is hatched, it 

 will throw the eggs of other birds, and even the egg of 

 a cuckoo, out of the nest, without any peculiar anato- 

 mical construction, adapted for that purpose and 

 ceasing when it is accomplished. All nestling birds, 

 after they have acquired a little strength, eject ex- 

 traneous substances out of the nest, and we have no 

 doubt that if the gentlemen who made the experi- 

 ments, had used nutshells instead of the eggs of the 

 hedge sparrow, the result would have been the same. 

 Nursling birds show the same attention to the cleanness 

 of their nests that a Dutch skipper does, in one respect, 



