228 SOME COMMON LAND-BIRDS. 



ished till you reflect that, in bird-land, to feed a young bird and 

 to worry over it always means either an own child or an adopted 

 one. These little short-tailed, mottled slate-and-white nestlings 

 are certainly the own children of our elegant, graceful, long- 

 tailed cuckoo. In time they will outgrow the difference and 

 will look like her. 



There have been all kinds of stories about Cuckoo. Some 

 say that she lays her eggs in other birds' nests, and some that 

 she sucks eggs to make her voice clear. But we all know that 

 she is as hoarse as a crow, and the best naturalists to-day, 

 though they admit that they suspect her of egg-stealing, do 

 not say that they ever caught her at it. All that I am sure 

 of is that the other birds call her very bad names and try to 

 drive her away. This looks suspicious, but proves nothing. 

 Of the other charge there is rather more evidence, but even 

 that is not wholly against Cuckoo. She makes her own nest and 

 takes care of her own brood, as a rule. Occasionally she lays 

 an egg in some other bird's nest, but so rarely that you are 

 never likely to see it, or at most only in a certain particular 

 case. The black-billed cuckoo is rather prone to lay her 

 eggs in her yellow-billed cousin's nest, and yellow-bill just 

 as frequently returns the compliment. You can tell the eggs 

 apart by their color. But who cares ? Aren't they all cuckoos ? 

 And who cares if the cuckoo drops an egg now and then into 

 the nest of some other bird ? A young cuckoo is as useful 

 as any other young bird, and is no more trouble to his foster 

 parents than their own birdlings. 



The most important fact about Cuckoo is that she is our 

 greatest caterpillar hunter, and one of the best friends the 

 fruit grower has. When the ugly tent caterpillars have 

 twisted their webs about the ends of the apple-tree boughs, 

 and are beginning to crawl down the trunk in an endless 



