CHAPTER OF VARIETIES. 



419 



exactly similar in size and markings. Could they have been brought up 

 in the same nest ? When I first had him, he was so weak in the wings 

 that he could not fly even across the room, and now, though he grows 

 fast, I am sure that he could not be able to take any long journey at a 

 stretch. Now it has appeared to me, that if the cuckoo leaves this 

 country in the beginning of July, and I believe it does about the first 

 of the month, what can become of the young ones ? I have never heard 

 of its being noticed that they leave late in the year, by themselves, but 

 I am sure that this must be the case, unless my bird was hatched 

 remarkably late, and then the circumstance of there being another with 

 him of the same age, seems to throw some doubt as to this being the 

 case. 



The migration of this bird is altogether very singular, and I think 

 the reason that we have not noticed particoloured birds (and this must 

 be the case, or the red cuckoo would not have been considered distinct) 

 is because the cuckoo does not breed until it is two years old ; for I do 

 not think it possible that it can change its brown plumage, for the 

 beautiful and regular colour of the adult bird, in less than two moults, 

 and there can be no doubt that the cuckoo comes to England solely to 

 breed. 



I think this bird can have no other motive for resorting to this 

 country, because it is believed to migrate from the south, and therefore 

 it cannot come for the sake of climate, for it comes in the most tempe- 

 rate part of the year, and leaves us when the hot weather commences : 

 and secondly, it breeds almost immediately upon its arrival, and leaves 

 us as soon as it has performed the necessary duties for propagating 

 the species. The natural history of this bird is perhaps more interest- 

 ing than that of any other, the wonderful instinct with which it is en- 

 dowed for providing for its young, and more particularly that it should 

 only choose the nests of those birds which would provide proper food 

 for the nestling, is truly astonishing ; how wonderful indeed is that 

 Divine Wisdom which instructed this bird to seek proper nurses for 

 its young, and which taught the foster parent to nourish the young- 

 stranger in preference to her own family. T. C. 



Reason op cats alighting on their feet in falling. — The 

 instinct which all animals seem to possess in bringing the line of 

 direction of the centre of pressure within the base is admirable. It is 

 this instinct which renders the wild goat and the chamois so fearless of 

 danger in the terrific leaps they take among Alpine precipices ; and 

 which enables a cat always to alight on its feet in falling from heights 



