56 NATURE'S REALM. 
why it does not make a nest like any other 
bird, is the mystery of mysteries about the 
cuckoo. It may be said that the short time it 
remains in Europe (only about six or seven 
weeks) prevents it from building a nest and 
from hatching its young. But why doesit stay 
so short a time? If it can live in a northern 
clime for six or seven weeks, why can it not 
live for six months ?. These are questions that 
never have been solved, and probably never 
will. If it be a bird that can only exist ina 
a country bird; it never builds in houses, and 
is never seen in towns or cities. This is favor- 
able for the cuckoo, for it is a shy bird, and is 
never seen in, and seldom near, towns or vil- 
lages. It has been proven beyond any doubt 
that the cuckoo sometimes puts its egg in a 
nest placed in such a position that it could not 
possibly /ay the egg in it. Cuckoos have been 
seen to lay their eggs on the ground and then 
carry them in their bills and place them in the 
nest of the bird that was to hatch out the 




THE Cuckoo. 
warm climate, it is a strange thing that it does 
not go to northern latitudes in the hot weather, 
but leaves them just when the heat is begin- 
ning. 
It is in the nest of the hedge sparrow that 
the cuckoo generally lays or deposits its eggs, 
and, so far as has been discovered, it never 
puts more than one egg in any nest. It puts 
eggs in the nests of other birds, but the unfor- 
tunate and stupid hedge sparrow is the favorite 
foster mother to which the cuckoo usually 
gives the rearing of its young. The hedge 
sparrow is not known in America. Itis larger 
and darker than the now well-known English 
sparrow, which has become such a pest in our 
large cities. The hedge sparrow is essentially 
young stranger. It is a well-known fact that 
shortly after the young cuckoo leaves the shell 
it has the whole nest to itself. It ejects the 
young of the bird that owns the nest by taking 
them on its back, pushing them out and letting 
them drop on the ground, where they soon 
perish, and the young interloper then receives 
the entire attention of the foster parent. Here, 
perhaps, is the most extraordinary instance of 
precocious instinct in all Nature. The young 
cuckoo is generally, in fact always, twice as 
large as the young of the bird in whose nest it 
is hatched, and it requires much more food. 
The foster mother would never be able to at- 
tend to its wants amd the wants of her own 
progeny, so they are unceremoniously ejected 
