34 ANIMALS OF NO IMPORTANCE. 



chasing him the male cuckoo settles down upon some 

 branch and calls to his wife to join him, and together they 

 chuckle over the success of their ruse, and fly off to repeat 

 the trick on another bird. 



Some cuckoos carry their villainy yet a step furtherr 

 After the 'hen has deposited her egg in the strange nest, 

 she, in order to secure that the fraud shall not be discovered, 

 takes up in her beak one of the eggs already in the nest and 

 drops it on to the ground so that it is smashed to pieces ! 



The deception is rendered all the more perfect by the 

 fact that the egg of the cuckoo usually closely resembles 

 those of the owners of the nest. There are several races of 

 cuckoos, each of which always deposits its eggs in the nest 

 of one particular species, it may be that of the sparrow, it 

 may be that of the robin, the myna, the thrush, the pipit, 

 or a score of other birds ; but it is always the nest of the 

 same kind of bird. The resemblance of the egg of the 

 cuckoo to that of its foster-parent is supposed to be due to 

 the influence of food during the nestling period of each 

 particular cuckoo. 



The female cuckoo will commit murder in order to insure 

 her egg being properly hatched. If she finds a young 

 bird in the nest in which she intends to place her egg, she 

 savagely drags out the helpless creature and kills it. The 

 reason for this is obvious. Having a young one the foster- 

 mother might not care to hatch another egg ; and even if 

 she did hatch it her true offspring would have such a long 

 start on the young cuckoo, that the latter might find it 

 difficult to obtain sufficient food. 



The young cuckoo is born blind ; but blindness does 

 not deter him from committing deeds of evil. Since the 

 egg from which he is hatched is generally laid after those 

 from which his foster-brethren emerge, these latter are born 

 first. The newly-hatched cuckoo gropes about the nest 

 until he finds one of his foster-brothers. He then struggles 

 and wriggles about until he succeeds in hoisting the hap- 

 less youngster on to his back. The young murderer then 



