Mistress Cuckoo 



one would say anything, because we don't hap- 

 pen to like butcher-birds. As a matter of fact, 

 our judgments of these things are all warped by 

 personal feelings. Doubtless the only tenable 

 ground is that, from a bird's point of view, all 

 that he wants and can get is legitimate prey. 

 Yet, despite all logic, we shall continue to 

 believe that such conduct in any bird is some- 

 how against Nature, and rascally ; and we 

 can never feel that modesty and theft, gen- 

 tleness and murder, are consistent elements of 

 character. 



The other serious charge against the cuckoo 

 is quite as criminal as the first, but, upon ex- 

 amination, admits of a far better excuse. 



A bird's parental instincts are one of the 

 most beautiful aspects of its nature, and estab- 

 lish a closer bond of sympathy in mankind 

 than any other characteristic. But, when we 

 find the cuckoo coolly depositing one egg in 

 one nest, and another egg in another nest, of 

 other birds, thus shirking all the maternal re- 

 sponsibilities and felicities, it seems a more fla- 

 grant exhibition of heartlessness than sapping 

 the potential life out of inanimate eggs, and as 

 unnatural as even the destruction of the young 

 of other species. But the ground of such ab- 

 los 



