41 



The Cuckoo is always an interesting bird to us in England, and 

 known of old as " the harbinger of spring." Wordsworth writes 

 thus : 



" Thrice welcome, darling of the spring I 



Even yet thou art to me 

 No bird, but an invisible thing, 

 A voice, a mystery," 



but I don't think we shall have much commendation for the 

 remarkable behaviour of either the old or the young bird as regards 

 their nesting habits. The 17th April is put down as the usualjdate 

 for his arrival in England. The female lays her egg upon the 

 ground about the middle of May and then deposits it in the nest 

 of a bird whose egg resembles the one she has just laid, for 

 cuckoo's eggs vary very much, and she makes no nest of her own. 

 She may perhaps turn out some of the eggs already in the nest 

 she selects. Morris mentions 22 kinds of birds whose nests are 

 frequently used, but the Hedge Sparrow, Eobin, Titlark, Wagtail, 

 and Wren are sufficient for me to enumerate. Now the egg of a 

 cuckoo is remarkably small, corresponding to that of a bird about 

 one quarter of its own size, and the young, on being hatched, are 

 sturdy persevering little murderers, even before they can see. 

 Listen to the following, written by a lady naturalist. " The nest 

 was that of the Titlark, and had two Titlark's eggs, besides that of 

 the Cuckoo, It was below a heather bush on the decHvity of a 

 low abrupt bank. At one visit the Titlarks were found to be 

 hatched, but not the Cuckoo. At the next visit, forty-eight hours 

 after we found the young cuckoo alone in the nest, and both the 

 young Titlarks lying down the bank, about ten inches from the 

 margin of the nest, but quite lively after being warmed in the hand. 

 They were replaced in the nest beside the Cuckoo, which struggled 

 about till it got its back under one of them, when it climbed back- 

 wards directly up the open side of the nest, and hitched the Tit- 

 larks from its back on to the edge. It then stood quite upright on 

 its legs, which were straddled wide apart, w'th the claws firmly 

 fixed halfway down the inside of the nest, among the interlacing 

 fibres with which the nest was woven, and stretching its wings 

 apart and backwards, it elbowed the Titlark fairly over the margin 

 so far that its struggles took it down the bank, instead of back into 

 the nest. After this the Cuckoo stood a minute or two, feeling 

 back with its wings, as if to make sure that the Titlark was fairly 

 overboard, and then subsided into the bottom of the nest. As it 

 was getting late, and the Cuckoo did not immediately set to work 

 on the other nestling, I replaced the ejected one, and went home 

 On returning next day, both nestlings were found dead and cold out 

 of the nest. I replaced one of them, but the Cuckoo made no 

 effort to get under it and eject it, but seated himself contentedly 



