ORDER SCANSORES. 5^7 



ejected the eggs. 6th. That this little bird, thus maltreated, 

 makes no sort of difficulty in returning to its nest, and cover- 

 ing the egg substituted by the cuckow, though but a single 

 egg, and totally unlike its own. Finally, that it is neither 

 in consequence of indifference nor of idleness that the cuckow 

 does not build a nest or hatch its own eggs ; but that, from 

 the peculiar nature of its conformation, and probably from 

 some other unknown cause, it requires the co-operation of 

 others for the multiplication of its species ; and that all this, 

 however singular, is not to be considered as a disorder or 

 caprice in nature, but as an effect of the supreme and 

 sovereign will which regulates the universe, 



Montbeillard has not adopted these results of Lothinger ; 

 but there does not appear to be much foundation in his objec- 

 tions. 



Among the nests which the female cuckow makes choice of, 

 there are some so small that they cannot contain a young 

 cuckow, and the children of its nurse together. The natu- 

 ralist we have been citing, declares, that he has had multi- 

 plied proofs that this female throws, or pushes out, such eggs 

 as she finds in the nest. Others pretend that she eats them. 

 These facts, however, should not be generalized, for eggs 

 have been found in the same nest with a young cuckow. 

 They might, doubtless, have been laid after the introduction 

 of the stranger ; but it is quite certain, in some cases, that 

 they were laid before, for a young cuckow, just broken from 

 the shell, has been seen in a thrush's nest, with two young 

 thrushes, which were beginning to flutter. The same thing 

 has been observed in various nests; while in others, the young 

 cuckow has been found to be the oldest. Lothinger assures 

 us, that the female cuckow can introduce her egg into the 

 nest of the wren, and remove the other eggs to make way 

 for it ; and he also declares that she does the same with the 

 nest of the cole-titmouse. It would be interesting to know 



