THE YOUNG CUCKOO 
215 
which is kept up incessantly whilst its fosterers 
are away foraging on its account. It will remain 
for hours together on one perch, and will take for 
itself any morsel that offers within easy range. 
That the young bird has been seen to hop down 
from its perch and capture a worm serves to show 
how not only those Cuckoos which have delayed 
their departure, but also those which return to 
find a scarcity of their normal insect diet, contrive 
to maintain themselves. 
All practical ornithologists will have noticed 
that fosterers ordinarily make much more demon- 
stration about a young Cuckoo than about their 
own legitimate offspring. It is just as if they took 
pride in the lustiness of their changeling, a pride 
which increases their excitability when danger 
threatens. 
