KINGFISHER AND CUCKOOS 173 



I 



cradles? This is true only of the Eiiropean cuckoo, 

 that we all know in cuckoo clocks and the pages of Chau- 

 cer, Shakespeare, and other EngUsh poets. Its American 

 cousin makes a poor apology for a nest, it is true, merely a 

 loose bundle or platform of sticks, as flimsily put together 

 as a dove's nest. The greenish-blue eggs or the naked 

 babies must certainly fall through, one would think. 

 Still — ^poor thing though it be — ^it is all the cuckoos' own, 

 and they are proud of it. But so sensitive and fearful 

 are they when a human visitor inspects their nursery that 

 they will usually desert it, never to return, if you touch 

 it, so beware of peeping! 



When the skinny cuckoo babies are a few days old, 

 blue pin-feathers begin to appear, and presently their 

 bodies are stuck full of fine, sharply pointed quills like a 

 well-stocked pin cushion or a "fretful porcupine." But 

 presto! every pin-feather suddenly fluffs out the day be- 

 fore the youngsters leave the nest, and they are clothed in 

 a suit of soft feathers like their parents. In a few months 

 young cuckoos, hatched as far north as New England 

 and Canada or even Labrador, are strong enough to fly 

 to Central or South America to spend the winter. 



