236 THE CUCKOO’S SECRET 
Cuckoos pairing as most birds do. There is no 
necessity for birds to pair, in the usual sense of the 
word, when they do not tend their young ; and if 
we may adduce the sociologist’s dictum, that 
promiscuity tends to the extinction of the family, 
is it fanciful to reverse cause and effect, and suggest 
that absence of the family is an incentive to 
promiscuity ? 
Conclusion 
I shall be well repaid for the labour involved in 
compiling this book if it leads other students of 
the Cuckoo to verify for themselves such main 
facts as are brought forward for the first time, and 
to make and record observations which will either 
confirm or disprove the theories that I have 
formulated. To this end I shall be pleased to 
make the acquaintance of and to show my collection 
of eggs to those who care to co-operate with me in 
the solution of more of these fascinating problems 
which a study of the Cuckoo reveals. 
In the main I feel that my deductions are in 
essence correct, for I have found that many of those 
ornithologists who have the widest practical experi- 
ence of the Cuckoo are largely in agreement with 
