52 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 
produces an excess of males in the offspring; that sexual desire in the males is 
subordinated to greed of food, and consequently they neglect the females, whith 
are obliged to seek out several males before the clutch of eggs can be deposited ; 
and he instances the American Cow-birds, as stated by American Ornithologists to 
be similarly of insatiable appetite. Consequently it is concluded that the females 
having to lay their eggs at long intervals are unable to attend to them and hand 
over the care of them to other birds. Charles Dixon has opposed this view at 
great length in his “Jottings about Birds,” and shows it to be utterly untenable 
inasmuch as the male Cuckoo has a love-song and is no more voracious than the 
female; he also denies the excess of males over females, but here I am inclined 
to disagree with him, for on several occasions I have seen two and even three 
males pursuing one female. He suggests that the fact of the young being 
extremely voracious may have been the original cause, which seems far more 
probable. With regard to the voracity of Cow-birds, I have kept a pair for about 
four years, and have been astonished at the very small amount of food which they 
consume in a week; indeed it is rare for me to see them feeding; I should say 
that all Lcterzde were small eaters. 
With regard to the Cuckoo in captivity, I would recommend no lover of birds 
to have anything to do with it. A young bird was given to me two or three 
years ago, and, so far as feeding went, there was no difficulty; it would eat any- 
thing that was offered, but for a considerable time refused to feed itself, merely 
sitting on its perch or fluttering against the bars of its cage and screaming for 
food: at length by refusing to feed it, and simply stirring the food in its pan 
with its feeding-stick, at which it snapped greedily, I taught it to attend to its 
own wants, and then each day it emptied a large pan holding more than would 
be enough for an adult Blackbird. It flopped and fluttered about, covering itself 
with filth and breaking its feathers until it was simply hideous; nor, even when 
gorging itself, did it ever cease from its discontented chirp. In an aviary even, 
the Cuckoo is not interesting, but sits on a perch and calls the other birds to 
feed it. 
