224 The World-Evidence. 



Now, my belief is that beyond a certain number of 

 eggs the American bird, too, is parasitic, recognising 

 the fact that it would be too much for it to have 

 more than four or five young ones to feed — and, 

 query, does it, like certain of its relatives, turn some 

 of these, on being fledged, over to the care of other 

 birds ? 



The words I have put in italics above are very 

 significant — the robbing of other birds' nests being 

 probably in some way connected with the mobbing, 

 and the egg of the American cuckoo, which is some- 

 times set before us as non-parasitic absolutely, in 

 other birds' nests is richly suggestive in several ways 

 — which Mr. Darwin did not note. 



Jerdon emphasises the same fact about the Ameri- 

 can cuckoo. He says : 



" The American cuckoo, though it ordinarily incu- 

 bates its own eggs and feeds its progeny, does some- 

 times adopt the procedure of the Old World Ciicu- 

 lincB." * 



Evidence accumulates year by year to prove that 

 the character of the American cuckoo, if once as 

 good as painted, is deteriorating from the high stan- 

 dard ornithologists of old were fond to give it ; and 

 this testimony is from all parts — north and south, 

 east and west. They are no longer the " unquaU- 

 fiedly well-behaved parents ' of Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, 

 nor do they " faithfully incubate " all " their delicate 

 sea-green eggs," as Professor A. Newton has it. 



Mr. Macllwraith, in his Birds of Ontario, writes : 



" The two kinds of cuckoo we have in Canada are 

 not so totally depraved as the British cuckoo. They 



* Birds of India, i, p. 321. 



