CHAPTEK XXV. 



PARASITIC NESTS. 



Vtuions Parasites — Parasitic Birds — The Cuckoo and its kin — The Cow Bird and 

 its nest — Size of its egg — Comparison between the Cuckoo and the Apteryx — 

 The .£ftobnis — The Blue-faced Honet-eateb or Batikin — General habits 

 of the bird — Singular mode of nesting — ^The Spabrow-Hawk and its parasitic 

 habits — ^The Kestrel, its quarrel with a Magpie — The Purple Grakle or Crow 

 Blackbird — Its curious alliance with the Osprey — ^Wilson's account of the two 

 birds — The Spaeeow as a parasite — Curious behaviour of the Stork — Parasitic 

 Insects — The Icbneumok Flies— The parasite of the Cabbage Catebfillar 

 — Its numbers and mode of making its habitation — Trap-doors of the cells — The 

 Australian Cocoon and its parasites — The Oak-Egger Moth, its cocoons and 

 enemies — The Puss Moth — Its remarkable cecoon — Powerful jaws of the 

 parasite — Rubt-Tailed Flies and their victims— Modes of usurpation — The 

 Cuckoo Flies or Tacbinse — Parasites within pnpn — Parasites on vegetables — 

 The Gall Flies and their home — British Galls, their shapes, structures, and 

 authors — Foreign Galls, and their uses. 



We now pass to another branch of this inexhaustible subject, 

 and come to those creatures that are indebted to other beings 

 for their homes. In some cases, the habitation is simply usurped 

 fi'om the rightful proprietors, who are either driven out by main 

 force or are ousted by gradual encroachment. In other cases, the 

 deserted tenement of one animal is seized upon by another, 

 which either inhabits it at once, or makes a few alterations, and 

 80 converts it to its own purposes. In many instances, however, 

 the habitation of the parasite is found within the animal itself; 

 and in some cases the entire body forms the home of the para- 

 site. 



Several examples of the first description of parasites have 

 already been given under other headings. For instance, where 

 the pufBn invades the rabbit-burrows, and drives out the rabbits 

 by dint of courage and a powerful beak ; or where the Coquimbo 

 owl and rattlesnake take possession of the homes which had 

 been excavated by the prairie dog. Examples of the second 

 description of parasites have also been given. The kingfisher 



HH 2 



