272 
THE CUCKOO. 
the wonderful manner in which its wants are assisted by 
nature. The Cuckoo, as we have said, lays its egg in the 
nest of a small bird ; of course, if this egg were large in 
proportion to the size of the parent bird, it would he far 
too large for the little nest in which it was placed, and its 
unnatural size would, moreover, in all probability, frighten 
the lesser foster-mother, and induce her to desert her own 
nest ; hut a Cuckoo’s egg is remarkably small, and therefore 
can he laid, without exciting suspicion, in the midst of others, : 
of a naturally small size. In the next place, it is known 
that the young Cuckoo always contrives to make room for its 
increasing size, hy throwing the other nestlings out of the 
nest ; hut were it of the usual form with other birds, it would 
find great difficulty in accomplishing this. Nature, how- 
ever, lends a helping hand, and has given it a remarkable ; 
depression or hollow between its shoulders, into which, by 
an odd sort of jerk, it contrives to lift the young birds, and 1 
then shuffling backwards to the edge of the nest, throws 
them over. This hollow, however, only remains for a certain !j 
time, and then fills up ; and it is an extraordinary fact, that I 
if the young birds are designedly kept in the nest till the '"j 
hollow is filled up, the young Cuckoo, as if avrare that it has 
no longer the power to get rid of them, allows them to 
remain unmolested. 
