Robin and Cuckoo. 
.'527 
suinding on lip-loo, craned its liitic neck to liu- utniosi. 'riicn 
the b(-.Hv.-> would touch and the juicy cat:'rpillar or ilu' w l ij;- 
glinj; worm Icll liic niollicr's beak and di^aijpeared down I'k; 
ca[)ac.iou^ maw of ih • foslcr-child. A Cuckoo's a])pcUle would 
appeal Ic be msaliable, for almosl before the toothsome morsel 
had let' u.^ throat il was screaming again for focnl and puuing 
as iiiucli pathetic hunger into its cries as the cliild-begga rs 
of the Eaa' when they whine for " painies." 
During the whole of the 1 6th, i/th, and i 8th of j'uiy 
the ciica and the feeding of tlie gluttonous little parasite cu.i- 
tinueil anc we began to consider what steps we should have 
to take to prevent the now obviously worn-out little Robin 
from dying of exhaustion. So wc placed crumbs on a wooden 
table \\\ the vicinity of the wood-shed and before half-aii- 
hour had elapsed she was transporting the ready-made store 
of food to the hungry Cuckoo. Tune after time she came lo 
the hoard on the table despiie our standing close by, but never 
once did .she fiy straight back to the Cuckoo on the shed. 
Invariably she took a zig-zag course, now on the starboard 
tack through the orchard, and now on the port tack through 
the hawthorn and blackberry of the hedge, until cventuallv 
she came to her moorings on the roof of the shed. And all 
the while the never-satisfied, greedy monster, with which she. 
all unwittmg, had been tricked, kept up its raucous cry. 
On the morning of the 1 9th a most singular incident 
happened. The Cuckoo tried to short-circuit its maternal 
commissary of subsistence by making a direct raid on the 
food-store lying on the table. The foster-bird became greatly 
perturbed on discovering what her wayward child had done; 
scoldmg its warning, it ffew on to the table, its feathers 
erect and flaming breast heaving up and down with an.Kiety, 
and literally drove the Cuckoo back to the shed — apparently 
fearless for her own welfare she yet could not bring herself 
to allow of entrusting" her precious charge to our lender 
mercies. A few days after this we noticed that the rapidly 
developing young bird was growing fierce in its manner to- 
wards its foster-mother, making wdiat appeared to us to be 
threatening movements when she appro'ached it; the mother, 
in her turn, appeared worried and puzzled, and went about 
