Flumane Robins. 325 
mest made in a stubble rick ; there chanced to be a 
slight hollow in the side of the rick, and this had been 
enlarged. A cuckoo laid her egg in the nest, and as 
it happened to be near some cowsheds it was found 
and watched. When the young bird began to get 
- fledged some sticks were inserted in the rick so as to 
form a cage, that it might not escape, and there the 
cuckoo grew to maturity and to full feather. 
All the while the labour undergone by the robins 
in supplying the wide throat of the cuckoo with food 
was something incredible. It was only necessary: to 
wait a very few minutes before one or other came, but 
the voracious creature seemed never satisfied ; he was 
bigger than both his foster-parents put together, 
and they waited on him like slaves. It was really 
distressing to see their unrewarded toil. Now, no 
argument will ever convince me that the robin or the 
wagtail, or any other bird in whose nest the cuckoo 
lays its egg, can ever confound the intruding pro- 
geny with its own offspring. Irrespective of size, the 
plumage is so different ; and there is another reason 
why they must know the two apart : the cuckoo as he 
grows larger begins to resemble the hawk, of which all 
birds are well known to feel the greatest terror. They 
will pursue a cuckoo exactly as they will a hawk. 
I will not say that that is because they mistake it 
for a hawk, for the longer I observe the more I am 
convinced that birds and animals often act from causes 
quite distinct from those which at first sight appear 
