THE CUCKOO. 
271 
known to all, is that strange unnatural propensity peculiar 
to this bird, of leaving to others the care of its young. Why 
does the Cuckoo do this ? Is it because it has no knowledge 
of building a nest for itself? Is it because, alone of all the 
feathered race, it is without those affections and sympathies 
which are discoverable and innate in every other species ? Is 
it because it is unfitted, from its structure or mode of life, 
for those sedentary habits essential to incubation ? 
To this, and a thousand other such marvellous instincts 
and habits, we have no answer to give. The why and the 
wherefore are yet to he learned. But that He who gave 
the bird such an apparently unnatural habit had his reasons 
for so doing, there can he no doubt, and it is one of the 
pleasing occupations and pursuits of a naturalist to use all 
diligence, diving as far as possible into these mysteries, and 
finding out, as far as he can, why what is apparently wrong 
may nevertheless he really right, a working together for a 
good end, and a fulfilment of one great uniform design of 
Perfection and Wisdom. 
In p. 170, a curious case was mentioned of a Cuckoo 
having been fed by a Thrush of its own age. The bird was 
successfully reared, and continued in good health till about 
the period at which other birds of its kind were in the habit 
of leaving the country, when it began to mope, particularly 
during the day; towards night, however, it became more 
restless and fidgety, fluttering about and Hying up and down 
the cage. After this, not being able to escape, it recovered 
its spirits, and was alive and in good health in October, 1832, 
when the narrative reached us, though it probably died in the 
course of the Winter, the usual fate of numbers which have 
been kept in a state of confinement. We do not, indeed, 
recollect a single well- authenticated instance of one of these 
birds living for a year, when kept in confinement, which is 
the more surprising, as their usual insect food might he 
generally procured. 
To naturalists various other peculiarities in the Cuckoo 
are well known, hut in closing our account, we would refer 
to two more particularly worthy of notice, as instances of 
