3604 The Zoologist— May, 1873. 



it settles itself at ease, opening its immense, yellow mouth wider 

 than ever, and clamouring more eagerly even than before for food. 

 Its hunger is unlimited, and it swallows the food brought by its foster- 

 parents with the utmost avidity. " The more it wants," says my 

 father, " the harder the little songsters labour to satisfy it : they 

 fly backwards and forwards, taking no rest until their voracious 

 foster-child has been satisfied. It is quite touching to watch the 

 anxiety and care which they display. The little wren, and still 

 more strange, the diminutive goldcrest, in their care for the 

 cuckoo under their charge, are perfectly oblivious of themselves 

 and their own requirings. They scarcely allow themselves time 

 to satisfy their own hunger : the feeding of their foster-child is 

 their first and principal object." In olden times it was asserted 

 that the young cuckoo devoured its foster-parents ; this is, however, 

 manifestly untrue, though we may easily understand that observers, 

 on seeing the young bird's immense and ever-open mouth, might, 

 without any great stretch of the imagination, have arrived at that 

 conclusion. Others have given a finishing touch to the romance 

 by saying that the young cuckoo did not devour its foster-parents 

 until it had no further need for them ! This has led to the custom 

 of holding up the cuckoo as typical of those ungrateful children, 

 who, when their parents have nothing more to give, neglect, 

 despise, and ill-use them. 



Throughout Nature there is no more striking exemplification of 

 the slorgC', or maternal solicitude of birds for their young, than this 

 exhibited by the foster-parents of the cuckoo for their adopted child. 

 These birds might well be regarded as patterns worthy of imitation 

 by our human step and foster-parents ! The stranger, who has turned 

 the legitimate children out of their home, is tended by the now 

 childless parents with as much tenderness and love as if it was 

 their own. If one only approaches the uncouth foundling, which is 

 the produce of a strange egg palmed upon their credulity, they 

 show the most painful anxiety on its behalf, and seek by all means 

 in their power to preserve it from danger and defend it. Fearlessly 

 they flutter round a person coming near the nest, crying pitifully, 

 and apparently totally oblivious of their own safety, when intent 

 on protecting their charge. The foster-child understands their 

 warning notes, for it instantly becomes silent, though just before 

 it has been calling out " hip, hip," in hungry tones, to the best of 

 its ability. This extraordinary care is continued by the foster- 



