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THE CUCKOO . 
which is intended to be hatched by the hedge-warbler is not precisely of the same color as that 
which is destined for the nest of the pipit. 
Several experienced naturalists now lean to the opinion that the female Cuckoo really feels 
a mother’s anxiety about her young ; and this theory— a somewhat recent one— is corroborated 
by an account kindly sent to me by a lady, at that time unknown to me. A young Cuckoo 
had been hatched in the nest of some small bird, and after it was able to leave the nest for a 
short time, was taken under the protection of a female Cuckoo, who had been hovering about 
the place, and which at once assumed a mother’s authority over the young bird, feeding it and 
calling it just like any other bird. 
On inquiring whether the old Cuckoo ever helped the young one back into the nest, noth- 
ing could be ascertained. The children of the family, who were naturally interested in the 
affair, used sometimes to pick up the young bird, and put it back into the nest, but it was 
often found in its warm home without human intervention, and as it was too helpless and 
timid to perform such a feat unaided, the natural assumption was that the old bird had given 
her assistance. 
The mode by which the Cuckoo contrives to deposit her eggs in the nest of sundry birds 
was extremely dubious, until a key was found to the problem by a chance discovery made by 
Le Vaillant. He had shot a female Cuckoo, and on opening its mouth in order to stuff it with 
tow, he found an egg lodged very snugly within the throat. 
When hatched, the proceedings of the young Cuckoo are very strange. As in process of 
time it would be a comparatively large bird, the nest would soon be far too small to contain 
the whole family ; so the young bird, almost as soon as it can scramble about the nest, sets 
deliberately to work to turn out all the other eggs or nestlings. This it accomplishes by 
getting its tail under each egg or young bird in succession, wriggling them on to its back, and 
then cleverly pitching them over the side of the nest. It is rather curious that in its earlier 
days it only throws the eggs over, its more murderous propensities not being developed until 
a more advanced age. 
There seems to be some peculiarity in the nature of the Cuckoo which forces other birds 
to cater for its benefit, as even in the case of a tame and wing-clipped Cuckoo, which was 
allowed to wander about a lawn, the little birds used to assemble about it with food in their 
mouths, and feed it as long as it chose to demand their aid. 
Sometimes two Cuckoo’ s eggs have been laid in the same nest ; when they are hatched 
there is a mutual struggle for the sole possession of the nest. Dr. Jenner, in his well-known 
and most valuable paper on this bird, gives the following account of such a strife : — 
“Two Cuckoos and a hedge-sparrow were hatched in the same nest this morning; one 
hedge-sparrow’s egg remained unhatched. In a few hours after, a combat began between the 
Cuckoos for the possession of the nest, which continued undetermined until the next afternoon, 
when one of them, which was somewhat superior in size, turned out the other, together with 
the young hedge-sparrow and the unhatched egg. This contest was very remarkable. The 
combatants alternately appeared to have the advantage, as each carried the other several 
times nearly to the top of the nest, and then sank down again oppressed by the weight of its 
burden, till, at length, after various efforts, the strongest prevailed, and was afterwards brought 
up by the hedge-sparrows.” 
In order to enable the young Cuckoo to perform this curious feat, its back is very different 
in shape from that of ordinary birds, being very broad from the shoulder downwards, leaving 
a well-marked depression in the middle, on which the egg or young bird rests while it is being 
carried to the edge of the nest. In about a fortnight this cavity is filled up, and the young 
bird has nothing extraordinary in its appearance. 
From its peculiar mode of foisting off its young upon other birds, its character would seem 
to be of a solitary nature. Such, however, is not the case, for at some periods of the year 
these birds may be seen in considerable numbers, playing with each other or feeding in close 
proximity. Upwards of twenty have been observed in a single field, feeding on the caterpillars 
of the burnet moth, and several communications have been addressed to sport journals in 
which the subject of natural history is discussed, relating similar occurrences. One of theso 
