The California Cuckoo 



builder. The interpretation (which is my own) is this: The Cuckoo 

 finding a completed but still unoccupied nest of the Mourning Dove 

 deposited her own eggs therein. Whether she actually intended at this 



time to impose upon the 

 Dove, we do not know — 

 perhaps the Cuckoo did 

 not know — and that she 

 may not have known or 

 cared is precisely the 

 point of interest in a 

 study of incipient para- 

 sitism. The Dove, 

 knowing the nest to be 

 rightfully hers, although 

 her own hour had not 

 yet come, covered it suf- 

 ficiently to start devel- 

 opmental processes in 

 the Cuckoo's eggs. The 

 deposition of her own 

 eggs followed in due 

 course; and having an 

 instinct to cover them 

 for a sufficient time, she 

 ignored the premature 

 arrival of the derelicts, 

 and neglected to feed them before they perished. Meanwhile, the rightful 

 mother of the future foundlings, seeing that the complaisant Dove was will- 

 ing to undertake an arduous duty in her stead, took herself off comfortably 

 to caterpillar-hunting, and presently forgot the whole episode. In some 

 such way, at least, the ancient wrong-doing of the Cuckoo began. 



It might fare ill for other song-birds if the Cuckoo abounded; but 

 this much is sure, the advent of the Cuckoo would be a benison, in his own 

 right, to the farmer. This testimony from an eastern author i is apropos: 

 "Few birds are of so much service to the farmer. Especially are the 

 fruit growers and nursery-men its debtors. In early spring they love the 

 orchard. I have known them to destroy every tent caterpillar (Clisio- 

 campa americana) in a badly infested orchard and tear up all the nests 

 in half a day. While they may have eaten some caterpillars, out of most 

 of them the juices were squeezed and the hairy skin dropped to the 

 ground. Almost every watchful fruit grower has had a similar experi- 



1 Amos W. Butler, in "The Birds of Indiana." 



Taken in Los A ngeles County Photo by A nlonin Jay 



NEST AND EGGS OF CALIFORNIA CUCKOO 



115- 



