122 



On certain Peculiarities in the 



(as Dr. Jcnnor supposed, 1 and so led many into error) which [: 

 generally removes from the nest the young Cuckoo's foster brethren, \\ 

 and any unhatched eggs there may be, a fact which my friend, the \ 

 late lamented naturalist, Mr. Waterton, proved 2 to be quite im- j 

 possible for any newly hatched bird, however precocious that bird I 

 might be. 



Whether or no this is the last office which the parent Cuckoo 

 undertakes for its young, I will not venture to affirm : though it 

 is the opinion of some experienced naturalists that she really feels 

 an anxiety for her young, not less than that shown by other birds : 3 

 while others maintain that she has occasionally, though very ex- < 

 ceptionally, been known to feed her own young, of which several 

 most convincing proofs have been adduced : 4 and others again 

 declare that she sometimes even takes the young under her pro- 

 tection, when they are sufficiently fledged to leave the nest. 5 But 

 be that as it may, towards the end of July the old birds are pre- 

 paring to migrate, and the male has already changed his note to 

 that stammering repetition of the first syllable which (a J all observers 

 know,) heralds the cessation of his so called song : and which an 

 old writer, John Hay ward, who flourished about A.D. 1580, has 

 •described in the following quaint but very graphic rhymes, 



" In April the Cuckoo can sing her song by rote. 

 In June oft'times she cannot sing a note. 

 At first, koo ; koo ; koo ; sings till can she do 

 At last, kooke, kooke, kooke ; six kookes to one koo." 



By the beginning of August then, the parent Cuckoos are gone 

 southwards, but the young Cuckoo is notoriously a tedious nurse- 

 ling, and indeed having to grow from the inmate of a very small 

 eggshell, to a bird of considerable dimensions, requires time for 

 such development, and taxes to a very large extent, the powers as 

 well as the assiduity of its foster parents : by degrees this over- 

 grown infant not only fills the little nest which was never meant 



1 Philosophical Transactions, vol, Ixxyiii. 

 2 Essays in Natural History, first series, p. 228. 

 3 Wood's Illustrated Nat. Hist. vol. ii. p. 572. Naturalist for 1851, p. 67, 162. 

 4 Naturalist for 1851. p. 11. 

 5 Yarrell, vol. ii., p. 572. Naturalist for 1851, p. 233. 



