Wild Birds, Useful and Injurious. 
27 
not always placed in a nest with others which match it, on 
the contrary, it often forms a striking contrast with them. 
The cuckoo, doubtless, selects a nest with eggs resembling 
its own if it can find one, but otherwise contents itself with 
that of any small bird. It lays its egg on the ground, and then 
carries it about till a suitable nursery is found, and more than 
once a cuckoo has been shot with its own egg in its bill. Such 
incidents may have given rise to the widespread belief that 
they suck the eggs of other birds ; that they habitually do so 
is, however, impi’obable, though they will remove one or more 
eggs from a nest to make room for their own. The fact that 
Fiq. 6.— Ringdove (Columhn palumbus). 
the young cuckoo itself ejects the eggs or young of its foster- 
parents is now well known. I once replaced the eggs of a 
titlark, which had suffered this fate, in the hope of seeing the 
performance repeated. The young cuckoo was not successful 
whilst under obseiwation — though the eggs were again outside 
the nest next daj’ — but its method of working was sufficiently 
demonstrated. It endeavoured to climb backwards up the 
side of the nest, keeping the egg on its back by stretching out 
its undeveloped wings. It was not a pretty sight. The food 
of the cuckoo consists of beetles and other insects, including 
