87 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



THE CUCKOO. 



I ONCE kept a Cuckoo, and for a considerable longer period 

 than I did tlie only Jackdaw I ever possessed, for some 

 months in fact, but I should not care to keep another. Yet 

 the Cuckoo is a handsome bird, and vastly intelligent, if lazy, 

 but I would not be paid a great deal to keep another, and 

 in the course of the present chapter I will tell you why. 



Of course, every one knows that the female Cuckoo, like 

 the fine lady of the present day, cannot be troubled with the 

 care of her children, for whom, to do her justice, she inva- 

 riably selects a fitting and trustworthy nurse, which is more 

 than can always be said for her human prototype: and the 

 reason why she acts in the apparently unnatural manner 

 common to her race, has long been, and still is, a puzzle to 

 ornithologists. One of the explanations given being, that owing 

 to the peculiar formation of the breast-bone, she is naturally 

 incapacitated from performing her maternal duties: and fifty 

 other conjectures, as unreasonable and as devoid of foundation 

 in fact, have been advanced to explain what can, after all^ 

 not be accounted for upon any other supposition than that, 

 ^ong since given by Dr. Watts in another connection, 



"It is her nature to", 



or "too", for there is some doubt whether it was the prepo- 

 sition or the adverb that the Doctor really used. Be that as 

 it inay, however, the Cuckoo, Cuculus canorus in scientific 

 phrase, le Couoou in French, and der gemeine Kuclcuk in Ger- 

 man, is a strange bird, concerning which very much has been 

 surmised, and exceedingly little is really known. 



The length of the Cuckoo is about fourteen inches, seven 



