ioo BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



hands of small birds. This is at its worst during 

 the blaze of day. It hardly begins before the sun 

 is fairly high, and slackens considerably as the 

 evening draws on. Accordingly, as it seems to 

 me, the cuckoo likes, in the between-while, to sit 

 still, and thus avoid observation, though it by no 

 means always succeeds in doing so. It is frequently 

 annoyed by one small bird only, which pursues it, 

 from tree to tree, in a most persevering manner, 

 perching when it perches, sometimes just over its 

 head, but very soon flying at it, again, and forcing 

 it to take flight. This is not like the shark and 

 the pilot-fish, but yet it always reminds me of it. 

 I am not quite sure, however, whether the relation 

 may not sometimes be a friendly one, not, indeed, 

 on the part of the cuckoo, but on that of its per- 

 severing attendant. All over the country cuckoos 

 are, each year, being reared by small birds of various 

 species. When the spring comes round again, have 

 these entirely forgotten their experience of the 

 season before? If not, would not the sight, and, 

 perhaps, still more, the smell of a cuckoo, rouse a 

 train of associations which might induce them to fly 

 towards it, in a state of excitement, and would it not 

 be difficult to distinguish this from anger ? More- 

 over, the probability, perhaps, is that the young 

 cuckoos, as well as the old ones, return to the 

 localities that they were established in before migra- 

 tion, and, in this case, they would be likely to meet 

 their old foster parents again. It is true that the 

 real parent and offspring, amongst birds, meet and 

 mingle, in after life, without any emotion upon either 

 side, as far, at least, as we can judge ; but we must 



