100 
OUR HOME BIRDS. 
for itself and of taking care of its young when 
hatched/’ 
“ How very funny !” exclaimed the two little girls, 
while Malcolm pronounced this “ A cool proceeding.” 
“ Very cool indeed,” continued their governess, 
“ but I must tell you that the young English cuckoos 
are still cooler ; for no sooner are they hatched than 
they turn the young of the bird that has hatched 
them out of the nest. This is because the cuckoo is 
always larger than the bird whose nest it selects, 
although the eggs are nearly the same size, and one 
young cuckoo quite fills a small bird’s nest. 
“ An English writer gives an account of the whole 
process : ‘ On the 18th of June,’ says he, ‘ I examined 
the nest of a hedge-sparrow, which then contained 
a cuckoo’s egg, as well as those of its own. On in- 
specting it the day following the bird had hatched, 
but the nest then contained only a young cuckoo and 
one hedge-sparrow. The nest was placed so near the 
extremity of a hedge that I could distinctly see what 
was going forward in it ; and, to my great astonish- 
ment, I saw the young cuckoo, though so lately 
hatched, in the act of turning out the young hedge- 
sparrow. The mode of accomplishing this was very 
curious. The little animal, with the assistance of its 
rump and wings, contrived* to get the other bird upon 
its back, and, making a lodgment for its burden by 
