THE JAY. 



229 



stances. The young cuckoo cannot, by any means, 

 support its own weight during the first day of its 

 existence. Of course, then, it is utterly incapable 

 of clambering, rump foremost, up the steep side of 

 a hedge sparrow's nest with the additional weight 

 of a young hedge sparrow on its back. Add to this, 

 that an old bird, the young of which are born blind, 

 always remains on the nest during the whole of the 

 day on which the chick is excluded from the shell, 

 in order to protect it. Now, the old hedge sparrow, 

 in the case just mentioned, must have been forced 

 from her nest by the accidental presence of an in- 

 truder. Her absence, then, at this important crisis, 

 was quite contrary to her usual economy, for she 

 ought to have been upon the nest. It follows, then, 

 that instinct could not have directed the newlj 

 hatched and blind cuckoo to oust the hedge sparrow, 

 even though it had strength to do so, because the 

 old bird would have been sitting close on the nest, 

 but for the circumstance which forced her from it, 

 namely, the accidental presence of an intruder. 

 The account carries its own condemnation, no 

 matter by whom related or by whom received. I 

 had much rather believe the story of baby Hercules 

 throttling two snakes in his cradle. 



" Parvus erat, manibusque suis Tirynthius angues 

 Pressit, et in cunis jam Jove dignus erat." 



When naturalists affixed the epithet glandarius 

 to the name of the jay, they ought also to have ac- 

 corded it to the jackdaw, the rook, the carrion crow, 

 and the magpie, not forgetting the pheasant and the 

 Q 3 



