THE CUCKOOS AND THE OUTWITTED COW-BIRD 33 



deposits its egg in the nests of the titlark, robin, 

 and wagtail by means of its foot. If the bird sat 

 on the nest while the egg was laid, the weight of 

 its body would crush the nest and cause it to be 

 forsaken, and thus one of the ends of Providence 

 would be defeated. I have found the eggs of the 

 cuckoo in the nest of a white-throat, built in so 

 small a hole in a garden wall that it was ab- 

 solutely impossible for the cuckoo to have got 

 into it. 



In the absence of substantiation, this, at best, 

 presumptive evidence is discounted by the well- 

 attested fact that the cuckoo has frequently been 

 shot in the act of carrying a cuckoo's egg in its 

 mouth, and there is on record an authentic ac- 

 count of a cuckoo which was observed through 

 a telescope to lay her egg on a bank, and then 

 take it in her di// and deposit it in the nest of a 

 wagtail. 



There is no evidence to warrant a similar re- 

 source in our cow -bird, though the inference 

 would often appear irresistible, did we not know 

 that Wilson actually saw the cow-bird in the act 

 of laying in the diminutive nest of a red- eyed 

 vireo, and also in that of the bluebird. 



And what is the almost certain doom of the 

 bird-home thus contaminated by the cow -bird? 

 3 



